Alexei Navalny’s daughter campaigns for Kamala Harris

The daughter of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, has joined the Kamala Harris election campaign team.

Dasha Navalnaya daughter of of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, Picture: Instagram

The daughter of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, has joined the Kamala Harris election campaign team in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.

Dasha Navalnaya, 23, graduated from Stanford University in California in June, four months after the death of her father at a Russian prison in the Arctic. She had been studying social psychology and political science since 2019.

She has been a full-time team manager for the Harris campaign in Philadelphia since August, according to her account on LinkedIn. Her duties appear to involve voter mobilisation and community outreach.

Ms Navalnaya’s involvement in the fiercely fought campaign is likely to spark speculation that she is preparing for an eventual role in Russian opposition politics.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s biggest domestic critic, had been serving a sentence of 30 years on politically motivated charges when he died at the Polar Wolf prison on February 16. Leaked documents published last month by The Insider suggest that he was poisoned.

Shortly after his death, President Joe Biden met Dasha and her mother, Yulia Navalnaya. He said there was “no doubt” that Putin was to blame for Navalny’s death. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, said that he was unsure if Putin was involved.

Yulia also spoke to Ms Harris in August, the same month that Dasha joined her campaign team.

Dasha has called her father her “superhero” and an inspiration. On her birthday last month, she wrote posted a photo of herself laughing to X and wrote: “This is my first birthday without a congratulation or a letter from my dad. It’s hard without him.”

Navalny said in 2020 that Dasha had been granted an endowment to study at Stanford and that he and his wife covered only her housing and food costs.

Yulia, who lives in exile in Europe, has vowed to continue Navalny’s work to bring down Putin.

THE TIMES