The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has declared her intention to run for the Russian presidency but only after Vladimir Putin has gone. Marking the launch of "Patriot," a posthumous memoir by her husband, Yulia Navalnaya told the BBC she would "do everything" to make Putin's regime "fall as soon as possible." For now, "that has to be from outside Russia," said the BBC. But Navalnaya believes the time will "inevitably" come when the "Putin era ends and Russia once again opens up." 

Behind the scenes 
Yulia Abrosimova was born in Moscow in 1976, at the height of the Cold War, to a scientist father and a mother who worked for the Soviet Ministry of Light Industry. A graduate of international economics, Abrosimova met Navalny in 1998 while holidaying in Turkey. They married two years later, and she subsequently quit a career in banking to raise their two children as her husband became an increasingly vocal and high-profile critic of the Putin regime. 

In post-Soviet politics, Navalny's "magnetism, flair for social media, and fluency in the street argot of younger Russians all singled him out," said The Times. In contrast, his wife "sought to avoid the limelight," said Politico. But behind the scenes, "those who knew the couple well said Navalnaya not only shared her husband's views but also helped shape them." 

In the limelight 
In 2020, Navalny was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent but, after receiving treatment in Germany, decided to return to Russia. It was a move he knew represented a near-certain death sentence. Imprisoned following a sham trial, Navalny died of suspected poisoning in a penal colony in February 2024, weeks before he was due to be released as part of a prisoner exchange with the West. 

Since then, "no single leader has emerged to unite the country's disparate opposition," said Reuters, and "there has been significant infighting between different Russian dissident groups abroad." But following her vow to continue her husband's crusade against the Putin regime from abroad and one day return to run for president, Navalnaya is undoubtedly now the "public face of Russia's opposition," said The Times.

Despite violent crime being on track to be at or near historic lows since the FBI began tracking data, a September 2024 Pew survey found that violent crime was fifth on voters' list of priorities this year. As a candidate for president in 2019, then-California Senator Kamala Harris promised to "fundamentally transform how we approach public safety." But her official presidential platform is thus far light on specifics, mainly focusing on her career as a prosecutor who backs law enforcement.

From reformer to hardliner
During the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020, Harris appeared to endorse aspects of the "defund the police" movement, arguing that funding police departments to the exclusion of social priorities was misguided. That year, the Biden-Harris ticket promised significant reforms to the criminal justice system.

However, the temporary crime wave during the Covid-19 pandemic put the brakes on Harris' criminal justice reform platform almost immediately. The newly inaugurated administration realized that public appetite for reform had been eclipsed by fears of violent crime. "The change reflects a broader shift in thinking among Democrats and their nonpartisan allies who work in violence reduction, criminal justice and police reform," said Marin Cogan in Vox.

A promise to legalize marijuana
Since becoming the Democratic Party nominee in August, Harris has had very little to say about crime or criminal justice. One exception is federal marijuana policy. Despite the increasing number of states that have fully legalized recreational marijuana, more than 200,000 people were arrested on marijuana charges in 2023. As a senator, Harris cosponsored a bill in 2019 to decriminalize marijuana.

Harris has made few concrete promises about either criminal justice reform, violent crime or policing. She has instead positioned herself as a tough-on-crime prosecutor who supports law enforcement. Harris is "embracing her identity as a prosecutor in a way that would have been unimaginable four years ago," said Shaila Dewan at The New York Times. How well that plays with voters remains to be seen.