Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), journalists and members of the public have been digesting what they’ve just heard.
This was a speech given by a grieving widow, Yulia Navalnaya who spoke of the family’s battle to retrieve her husband’s body from the Russian authorities – as a well as a vow from a democracy campaigner who promised to do her best to make Alexei Navalny’s dream come true.
One of the most moving moments for those in the auditorium came when Mrs Navalnaya momentarily lost her place in her speech: she paused, took a deep breath and looked up to the sky – as a burst of applause broke out in support and solidarity and filled the room.
Meanwhile, Mrs Navalny has told the MEPs that “If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator,” she says in Strasbourg. “And you have to stop being boring.”
She says Alexei Navalny “was the opposite of everything boring.”
Navalny, 47, was a political activist in Russia and a long-time, high-profile critic of President Vladimir Putin.
He will be buried in Moscow on Friday, a spokesperson confirms, after his team struggled to find a funeral home.
Navalnaya has vowed to continue her husband’s work to fight for a “free Russia.”
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