Yulia Navalnaya says she'll return to Russia one day to run for president, BBC reports

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said that she would one day return to Russia and run for president when Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is no longer in power, the BBC reported on Monday.

Since the death of Navalny in a Russian prison in the Arctic Circle in February, no single leader has emerged to unite the country's disparate opposition and there has been significant infighting between different Russian dissident groups abroad.

"My political opponent is Vladimir Putin. And I will do everything to make his regime fall as soon as possible," Navalnaya told the BBC.

When the time is right, "I will participate in the elections... as a candidate," she was quoted as saying by the BBC.

While Putin, Russia's paramount leader since the last day of 1999, is still in power, Navalnaya said she would not return. Putin turned 72 this month.

Navalny, 47, died suddenly on Feb. 16, depriving the Russian opposition of its most charismatic and popular leader.

He had been serving sentences totalling more than 30 years on charges he said were rigged in order to silence his criticism of Putin.

The Kremlin casts Navalny's political allies as dangerous extremists out to destabilise the country on behalf of the West. It says Putin enjoys overwhelming support among ordinary Russians, pointing to opinion polls which put his approval rating above 80%.

Navalny described Putin's Russia as a brittle criminal state run by thieves, sycophants and spies who care only about money. He had long forecast Russia could face seismic political turmoil, including revolution.

In one of his last major essays, Navalny in 2023 admonished the Russian elite for its venality, expressing hatred for those who squandered a historic opportunity to reform the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Navalnaya has accused Putin of ordering the killing of her husband, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed.

U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Putin did not order Navalny killed, according to the AP and the Wall Street Journal.

In August, Navalnaya dismissed information from investigators that Navalny had died from "a combination of diseases".

She told the BBC that the Anti-Corruption Foundation she now leads in her husband’s place has evidence which she will reveal when they have "the whole picture".

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Gareth Jones)