Yulia Navalnaya was aware that her husband, the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, would return to Russia once he had recovered from his life poisoned If there was an attack, he blamed the Kremlin.

They are aware of the risks, but there is no debate about whether returning to Russia is the right step, said Navalnaya. For them it was a matter of when, not if, they would bring the fight against Vladimir Putin back to Russia.

“Of course I would like to spend my whole life with my husband. But in that moment I knew there was only one choice he could make,” she said. “And it was his decision. And I knew how important it was to him. And I knew he wouldn’t be happy living in exile.”

They were met by police who arrested Navalny when he and Yulia returned to Russia in 2021. Navalny's fight against Putin, his arrest and his time in prison before his Death in February 2024 are detailed in his posthumous memoirs:patriot.”

How Navalny wrote “Patriot” in prison

Navalny began work on his memoirs, which will be published on October 22, while he was recovering in Germany from a 2020 assassination attempt that almost took his life. But much of it was written while in prison in Russia.

The opposition leader managed to maintain a presence on social media while in prison and continued his attacks on Putin. 60 Minutes was asked not to say how Navalny managed to post online.

Navalnaya said the conditions her husband faced in Russia had worsened month by month because he repeatedly spoke out against Putin. In Patriot, Navalny wrote that those conditions included “sleep deprivation,” “criminal solitary confinement,” and almost no medical care. When none of this broke him, he was repeatedly sent to a “black concrete hole” called a “punishment cell.” He stayed there for up to 15 days at a time.

Despite the conditions, he wrote that he was happy because he loved his work, knew he had support, and because “I met a woman with whom I not only share love… but who is just as against it as I am.” I know what's going on.”

Under constant surveillance, he managed to publish his writings.

“Alexei was very smart, very inventive,” Navalnaya said.

Navalny wrote that he devised an operation to deceive guards by using identical notebooks and passing them to someone during his court appearances.

“It was very difficult,” Navalnaya said. “That’s why we have diaries from the first year, let alone the second year, and not the third year because that wasn’t possible.”

She takes over her late husband's job

Navalny was tried and convicted several times under various pretexts in the years before his death. His original sentence was three and a half years extended to 19 years. After each verdict, he was transferred to another prison with harsher conditions. Last December he was transferred to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.

The 47-year-old dissident's last court appearance came just a day before his death on February 16. Navalnaya posted a video Message shortly after her husband's death.

“Vladimir Putin killed my husband,” she said. “By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul.”

Navalnaya, once her husband's silent partner, is now the leader of his opposition movement. She says the fight against Putin is not over yet. Her husband, she said, still enjoys the support of the Russian people.

“He still has millions of supporters,” Navalnaya said of her late husband. “You can see it in how many people still go to his grave every day, how many flowers are on his grave.”

She also posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Putin's accommodation was in a Russian prison, in a small cell like the one where her husband died.

“He has to be in the Russian prison to feel everything,” she said. “What not only my husband but all prisoners in Russia (feel).”

What Navalnaya risks

Navalny's political network in Russia was dismantled. Many members of his old team now operate from there Vilnius, Lithuania. Three of his lawyers are on trial in Russia Putin won his fifth term in office in March.

Navalnaya and her two children had to live in exile. She is constantly on the move, urging Western leaders to stand up to Putin.

In the summer, a Russian court issued a lawsuit Arrest warrant against NavalnayaBut she remains defiant and unafraid of Putin, even though she knows she could face retaliation.

“I don't want to live my life thinking every day about whether they're going to kidnap me today or tomorrow, whether they're going to poison me today or tomorrow,” she said.