Navalny’s widow casts her vote in Berlin

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, stood with voters outside the Russian embassy in Berlin on Sunday, in one of her few public appearances since her husband’s death last month.

Mrs. Navalnaya has promised to continue her husband’s work. Her presence at the embassy on Sunday to vote in Russia’s presidential election appeared to follow one of Mr. Navalny’s last political exhortations before he died: endorsing another activist’s call for opponents of President Vladimir V. Putin to to appear at the polls on Sunday at 12 noon. noon local time.

Mrs. Navalnaya declined to comment to reporters as she stood in the mile-long line, flanked by her husband’s longtime spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh. But she hugged and took photos with supporters who approached her, some of them in tears.

After about six hours of waiting, Ms. Navalnaya emerged from the Russian embassy. She told reporters that she had written “Navalny” on her ballot.

At 1 p.m., the line of voters stretched nearly a mile through central Berlin, ending just past a sign marking the location of Hitler’s World War II bunker. Several people waiting to cast their ballots said they planned to vote for someone other than Mr. Putin — even if the alternatives were Kremlin-endorsed candidates — or to write in Mr. Navalny’s name.

Yulia Lozovskaya, 29, who moved to Germany from St. Petersburg after Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, was one of many who sought out Ms. Navalnaya after learning on social media that she was in a queue somewhere.

“You feel that you are not alone,” Ms. Lozovskaya said, referring to the size of the crowd. “And that gives enormous power.”