Wikipedia

Daria Navalnaya

Daria Alexeyevna Navalnaya (Russian: Дарья Алексеевна Навальная; born 2001)[1] is a Russian political activist.[2] The elder child of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Yulia Navalnaya,[4] she became a public advocate for her father after his imprisonment in 2021,[5] accepting the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on his behalf in December of that year[6] and later speaking at the TEDWomen conference about his work and the political situation in Russia.[7]

Daria Alexeyevna Navalnaya
Дарья Алексеевна Навальная
Daria Navalnaya speaking at the European Youth Event (EYE 2025)
Born2001 (age 24–25)[1]
Moscow, Russia[2]
Other nameDasha Navalnaya
Alma materStanford University[3]
Occupations
  • Political activist
  • public speaker
Years active2021–present
Parents
RelativesZakhar Navalny (brother)[4]

Following her father's death in a Russian penal colony in February 2024,[5] Navalnaya continued to take part in public events related to the Russian opposition, accepting a posthumous award from the McCain Institute on his behalf[8] and, in August 2024, joining the U.S. presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris as a field organiser in Philadelphia.[9] She has written opinion pieces about her father and Russian politics for The New York Times and Time.[2][10]

Early life and education

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Daria Navalnaya was born in 2001[1] and grew up in Moscow.[2] Her father, Alexei Navalny, was the most prominent domestic critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin.[5] Her mother is Yulia Navalnaya.[4] She has a younger brother, Zakhar.[4] Navalnaya has described her childhood as shaped by state surveillance of her family, recalling that she and her brother would play a game on the Moscow Metro of identifying and evading the officers shadowing them.[11]

Navalnaya enrolled at Stanford University in California in 2019,[3] where she majored in psychology with a pathway in society, culture and mind, and minored in political science.[12] She completed her undergraduate degree in June 2024, four months after her father's death.[3][13]

Public activism

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Advocacy during her father's imprisonment

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Alexei Navalny was arrested on his return to Russia in January 2021, having recovered in Germany from a 2020 poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that Western governments and independent investigators attributed to the Russian state.[5] In April 2021, while her father was on a hunger strike to protest his prison conditions and his personal doctor had warned that he was close to death, Navalnaya called publicly on the authorities to allow him medical attention.[14]

In June 2021, Navalnaya accepted the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy's Moral Courage Award on her father's behalf by video link, telling delegates that he had asked her to dedicate the prize to political prisoners in Russia and Belarus.[1][15]

In October 2021, the European Parliament named Alexei Navalny as the recipient of its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.[16] With her father imprisoned, Navalnaya accepted the prize at the award ceremony in Strasbourg on 15 December 2021,[6] delivering a speech he had drafted from prison in which he urged the European Union to remain committed to its founding democratic values.[6][17]

Media appearances and writings

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Navalnaya gave an interview about her father's prison conditions to Fareed Zakaria on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS in January 2023.[18] She was the main guest of a CNN primetime special anchored by Erin Burnett in March 2023, in which she discussed her family's experience of state surveillance in Russia and called for the release of political prisoners and an end to the war in Ukraine.[11] She also spoke to CNN's Jim Acosta from the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April 2023, saying that her father's health was deteriorating and that prison staff were depriving him of food.[19]

In October 2023, Navalnaya delivered a talk at the TEDWomen conference in Atlanta, titled "Lessons from My Father, Alexey Navalny", in which she described her father's poisoning and imprisonment and her own experience of growing up under government surveillance.[7]

Navalnaya has contributed opinion pieces on her father and Russian politics to The New York Times and Time.[2][10] In 2019, The New York Times' opinion section published a video op-ed by her and journalist Adam Westbrook titled "What It's Like To Be a Teenager in Putin's Russia", in which Navalnaya and other young Russians described their political views.[20] In December 2022, Time published her essay "Why Putin Fears My Father Alexei Navalny", in which she wrote about her father's treatment in Russian custody and his political work.[21]

Death of Alexei Navalny

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Daria Navalnaya, Joe Biden, and Yulia Navalnaya

After her father's death on 16 February 2024,[5] Navalnaya and her mother met with U.S. President Joe Biden in San Francisco on 22 February 2024, where he expressed his condolences and announced additional sanctions against Russia.[22][23]

In April 2024, Navalnaya appeared at a Stanford University screening of Daniel Roher's Academy Award-winning documentary Navalny, taking part in a panel discussion afterwards with Roher and former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.[24]

On 3 May 2024, Navalnaya accepted the McCain Institute's Courage and Leadership Award for her father at the institute's Sedona Forum in Arizona; the award was presented by Jack McCain, the son of the late U.S. senator of the same name, and former Obama administration adviser David Axelrod.[8][25]

2024 U.S. presidential campaign

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In August 2024, Navalnaya joined the 2024 presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris as a field organiser based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her duties included voter mobilisation and community outreach.[9][3] British author and former government adviser Alastair Campbell, who met her at a public event in Norway later in 2024, described her position on the campaign as that of a volunteer and reported that she was disappointed by Harris's loss to Donald Trump.[13]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Sapienza, Brandon (8 June 2021). "Daughter of jailed Alexei Navalny accepts human rights award on father's behalf". New York Daily News. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dasha Navalnaya". TED. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Дарья Навальная работает в предвыборном штабе Камалы Харрис" [Daria Navalnaya is working on Kamala Harris's campaign]. Meduza (in Russian). Associated Press. 14 October 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Navalny's wife flies to be with daughter after his death". Malay Mail. Reuters. 22 February 2024. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Viswanatha, Aruna; Volz, Dustin; Strobel, Warren P.; Cullison, Alan; Grove, Thomas (27 April 2024). "Putin Didn't Directly Order Alexei Navalny's February Death, U.S. Spy Agencies Find". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 "Sakharov Prize 2021: Parliament honours Alexei Navalny" (Press release). European Parliament. 15 December 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  7. 1 2 Navalnaya, Dasha (October 2023). Lessons from my father, Alexey Navalny (lecture). TED. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  8. 1 2 Suter, Tara (4 May 2024). "Navalny's daughter accepts his posthumous McCain Institute award for courage, leadership". The Hill. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  9. 1 2 Bennetts, Marc (14 October 2024). "Navalny's daughter Dasha working for Kamala Harris campaign". The Times. Archived from the original on 11 November 2025. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  10. 1 2 "Dasha Navalnaya". Time. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  11. 1 2 Tanno, Sophie; Hu, Caitlin (4 March 2023). "'We will not stop fighting': Daughter of imprisoned Putin critic Alexey Navalny speaks out". CNN. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  12. ↑ "Dasha Navalnaya". McCain Institute. Archived from the original on 19 April 2025. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  13. 1 2 Campbell, Alastair (4 December 2024). "Alastair Campbell's diary: Navalny's daughter will haunt Putin". The New World. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  14. ↑ "Daughter pleads for medical care for imprisoned Putin critic Alexei Navalny". New York Daily News. 18 April 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  15. ↑ "Daria Navalnaya". Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  16. ↑ "Alexei Navalny awarded the European Parliament's 2021 Sakharov Prize" (Press release). European Parliament. 20 October 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  17. ↑ "Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's daughter accepts E.U. rights award on his behalf". NBC News. Associated Press. 15 December 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  18. ↑ Fareed Zakaria. 'Russian prisons take it to a whole other level': Daughter of imprisoned Putin opponent (interview). CNN. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
  19. ↑ Akbarzai, Sahar; Chen, Heather (29 April 2023). "Jailed Putin critic Navalny's health is deteriorating, daughter tells CNN". KESQ. Archived from the original on 10 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  20. ↑ Westbrook, Adam; Navalnaya, Daria (27 June 2019). "What It's Like To Be a Teenager in Putin's Russia". The New York Times (video op-ed). Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  21. ↑ Navalnaya, Daria (6 December 2022). "Why Putin Fears My Father Alexei Navalny". Time. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  22. ↑ Garrison, Joey (23 February 2024). "President Biden meets with Alexei Navalny's widow and daughter during California trip". USA Today. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  23. ↑ "Remarks to Reporters Following a Meeting With Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya in San Francisco, California" (Press release). The American Presidency Project. 22 February 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2026.
  24. ↑ Porteous, George (25 April 2024). "Navalny's daughter and Michael McFaul remember his defiance". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  25. ↑ Bordow, Scott (7 May 2024). "Preserving democracy focus of McCain Institute Sedona Forum". ASU News. Arizona State University. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
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