November 8, 2025 at 2:00 PM
A plaque honoring the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been placed on a bench across from the Russian embassy in The Hague. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, attended the unveiling.
The plaque reads in English and Russian: “Alexei Navalny (1976-2024), died for freedom.” The Hague Alderman Robert Barker unveiled the memorial Saturday morning. Navalny’s widow traveled to the Netherlands for the unveiling.
Tens of thousands of people signed a petition last year calling for the embassy’s street, Andries Bickerweg, to be named after the opposition member. The municipality rejected this call and opted for the plaque instead.
Navalny died in 2024 while in a remote penal colony in Siberia. In September, Navalnaya announced that tests had shown her husband had been poisoned. She claimed biological material was smuggled from Russia for analysis in two laboratories.
Navalny was also poisoned in 2020, when he became unwell during a flight. Two days later, Navalny was transferred to a hospital in Berlin, where it was determined he had been poisoned with Novichok.
Navalny wanted to become mayor and president
In January 2021, Navalny returned to Moscow. He was arrested immediately upon arrival at the airport. He was never released.
Navalny was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s highest-profile opponent. He shared videos about corruption and the self-enrichment of those in power, among other things.
The politician ran for both the mayoralty of Moscow and the Russian presidency.
(C)NU.NL 2025
I’d have been more impressed if it had been a plaque to commerate Nemtsov.
That would have been the right choice if they had wanted to make a pro-Ukraine statement.
Navalny was an imperialist; no friend of Ukraine and his sour-faces widow I suspect is a lot worse, going on the quotes coming from her.
Had Nemtsov replaced Yeltsin as per the previous plan, Ukraine and Georgia would have been spared an incalculable amount of grief.