Ukrainian students at the University of Edinburgh plan to protest the upcoming appearance of the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at a literary festival in the city over what they say are her imperialist views of Ukraine.
Yulia Navalnaya has been invited to present her late husband's memoir "Patriot" — published posthumously after he died in prison last year — at an event on Aug. 22 that forms part of the festival's program.
Andrii Kuzma, a representative of the Ukrainian Society, the student group that is planning the protest against her appearance, said the organization believes Navalnaya holds imperialist views similar to those of her late husband, and should not be given a platform to speak at the event, where Ukrainian authors will also participate.
Navalny, after surviving a poisoning attempt, was imprisoned on politically motivated charges and died under suspicious circumstances in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024, and is widely believed to have been killed.
Despite his opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny remains a controversial figure in Ukraine, accused of making imperialistic statements about Ukraine that echo those of the Kremlin.
The 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts is noticeably omitted from Navalny’s reflections in "Patriot." While he does mention the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in several passages, it was never specified that it was taken from Ukraine.
He also repeatedly asserted that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people" and that he saw "no difference" between them. Navalny, although condemning the war, called the war "fratricidal" in his memoir.
This same narrative is used by Putin as justification for Moscow's full-scale invasion. "I consider Russians and Ukrainians as one people, and in this sense, all of Ukraine is ours," Putin said during his speech on June 20 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
When asked by Zeit journalists on Oct. 26, 2024, about whether it is right for Western countries to send weapons to Ukraine, Navalnaya said: "It's hard to say. The bombs hit Russians as well."
"Spotlighting Russian cultural figures — even those opposed to Putin’s regime — does little to help if we’re serious about shifting focus away from the imperial centre and towards the cultures Russia has long sought to suppress."
"We find it unacceptable that individuals who publicly oppose arming Ukraine, thereby weakening a sovereign country's right to defend itself, are being given a platform to speak. This, in our view, should not be allowed," Kuzma said of Navalnaya.
Kuzma's organization has called on the festival organizers to "take our arguments seriously and to acknowledge the presence of tens of thousands of Ukrainians currently living in the United Kingdom."
In a response to the Ukrainian Society, the festival said it "understands that some of our participants may have views or opinions with which others may not agree."
"But we believe that bringing together different voices is necessary to have rounded and robust discussions," the response said.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival and Navalnaya have not responded to the Kyiv Independent's request to comment on Navalnaya's appearance.
The organizers arranged a meeting with the Ukrainian student society, offering students three free tickets to Navalnaya's presentation and the guaranteed opportunity to pose their questions, according to Kuzma. The students will use the opportunity, he said. The organizers have also authorized the students to demonstrate Navalnaya's appearance.
Several Ukrainian authors will be present at the festival, including writer Andrii Kurkov, culinary writer Olia Hercules, and writer and director of the Ukraine Institute London, Olesya Khromeychuk. They didn’t speak out against Navalnaya’s participation yet.
"The continued prominence of Russian authors on international cultural platforms understandably upsets many Ukrainians, who have been resisting war for over 11 years, including the genocidal onslaught that, since 2022, has explicitly targeted Ukrainian culture," Khromeychuk told the Kyiv Independent.
"For me, it’s important to stress that spotlighting Russian cultural figures — even those opposed to Putin’s regime — does little to help if we’re serious about shifting focus away from the imperial center and towards the cultures Russia has long sought to suppress."
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