Earlier this year, she cast her ballot in Russia's presidential election at the embassy in Berlin. An election 
where any real opposition had long been dealt with by Vladimir Putin. 

Following the death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony, the opposition has been all but decimated in Russia. 

And the heir apparent is Yulia Naválnaya. It's not a role she's taken on by choice ... but by necessity. 

Just 12 days after her husband's death, she addressed EU lawmakers in Strasbourg. 

Yulia Navalnaya, DW Freedom of Speech Award winner: "Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny. On his orders, Alexei was tortured for three years. He was starved in a tiny stone cell, cut off from the outside world and denied visits, phone calls and then even letters. And then, they killed him."

Yulia Navalnaya trained as an economist and worked at a bank before marrying Alexei Navalny in 2000. Navalnaya was long a quiet supporter of her husband's anti-corruption efforts. She was his closest political advisor, and by his side as he went to court and prison numerous times on charges Kremlin critics say were trumped up. 

Her profile grew when Navalny was poisoned in 2020. While her husband was fighting for his life in a hospital in Siberia, she issued a public letter to Vladimir Putin and led a pressure campaign to allow her husband to be flown to Germany for treatment. 

When Alexei Navalny returned to Russia in 2021, police arrested him - and detained Yulia Navalnaya, separating the couple for good. 

She long shunned the spotlight, but after her husband's harsh imprisonment and death, she vowed to continue the fight against the Kremlin. 

Vladimir Putin has a new vocal critic, not afraid to make use of her freedom of speech.