Yulia Navalnaya to headline Danish culture festival

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is set to be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Kulturmødet Mors festival in Denmark.

Navalnaya, who has continued her husband's fight against the Kremlin following his death in a Siberian prison in February 2024, will address themes of defending democracy and confronting authoritarianism. The festival, held from August 20-22 on the island of Mors, will also feature former Danish Prime Minister and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who will participate in discussions on European security, international alliances, and geopolitical shifts.

This year's Kulturmødet Mors places a significant emphasis on its international program, aiming to underscore the essential role of art and culture in democratic societies. "Our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, our freedom of assembly, our freedom of association. And these are precisely all the rights that Yulia Navalnaya is fighting for in a new democratic Russia," stated Caspar Ryttergaard, director of the festival, in a press release.

The festival's focus on Navalnaya comes amid ongoing international scrutiny of Alexei Navalny's death. British government findings, supported by Swedish, French, Dutch, and German authorities, suggest he died from the lethal poison epibatidine, which they believe Russia administered. Russian authorities maintain he died of natural causes. This follows a previous poisoning attempt on Navalny with the nerve agent novichok in August 2020, after which he spent months in Germany before returning to Russia in January 2021, where he was subsequently arrested and remained in custody until his death.

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Our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, our freedom of assembly, our freedom of association. And these are precisely all the rights that Yulia Navalnaya is fighting for in a new democratic Russia.