Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is emerging as a new political force, after she vowed to carry on her husband's fight for a "free Russia."

The most vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin died on February 16 in an Arctic penal colony.

"Three days ago ago Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny."

Navalnaya has accused Putin of having her husband killed. The Kremlin has angrily rejected that allegation.

Here's what we know about Navalnaya and what her future plans may be.

An economist by background, Yulia met Alexei on a holiday in Turkey in 1998.

They were both once members of the liberal Russian Yabloko party.

For years she sought to avoid the spotlight, but often appeared beside her husband at rallies, on the campaign trail and in the courtroom during his many trials.

She herself has been arrested multiple times at protests related to her husband's activist work.

When Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, it was Yulia who pushed for her husband's evacuation from Russia to a German hospital, where he underwent treatment.

Following her husband's death, Navalnaya has promised to continue his work, urging Russians to share her rage against Putin.

"By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me - half of my heart and half of my soul. But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up."

She has met Western politicians, including U.S. President Joe Biden.

Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, she urged EU politicians to investigate financial flows in the West linked to Putin and his allies.

"If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator. You have to stop being boring."

Navalnaya has not yet set out her vision for Russia's opposition, whose leading members are in prison or abroad.

"Yulia Navalnaya is our new hope. She has taken upon herself all of Alexei Navalny's political capital."

Currently living outside Russia, she would risk arrest if she returned, making the task ahead for Navalny's widow even more daunting.