She spoke at a number of rallies; she called the head of the National Guard of Russia Viktor Zolotov, who in September 2018 challenged Alexei Navalny to a "duel", as a "thief, coward and impudent bandit".

[6][7] Navalnaya attracted close public attention in the late summer and early fall of 2020, when her husband was urgently hospitalised in Omsk following a suspected poisoning.

She demanded that Navalny be released to Germany for treatment, and even turned directly to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

[26] In September 2020, after the poisoning of Navalny, opinions began to appear that Navalnaya was beginning to play an independent political role and might become the "Russian Tsikhanouskaya" — the leader of the entire opposition.

[34] In January 2021, the pro-Kremlin channel Tsargrad TV threatened to publish intimate files of Alexei Navalny unless Navalnaya promised "not to become Tsikhanouskaya in Russia" and "not to play political games".

"[38] On 28 February 2024, Navalnaya addressed the European Parliament after being invited by EP president Roberta Metsola.

[41][42] On 1 July 2024, Navalnaya was announced as the chairperson of Human Rights Foundation, succeeding Garry Kasparov.

[43][44] On 21 October 2024, on the eve of launching Navalny's memoir Patriot, Navalnaya gave an interview to the BBC, in which she stated that she would stand for president of Russia once Putin was no longer in power.

[46] After Alexei Navalny received a suspended sentence, the opinion was expressed that Navalnaya could nominate herself for the presidency instead of him.

According to Russian public figure Ksenia Sobchak, in 2018 she offered this option to Navalny, but he rejected it saying "votes are not handed over".

[15] In the same year, Russian writer Dmitry Bykov said that Navalnaya reminded him of the heroine of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: she "faces circumstances stronger than her, but some miracle helps her to defeat the world's evil.

[49] On 3 June 2024, she received the Human Rights Prize from Oslo Freedom Forum on behalf of her late husband.

[50] Other awards include: In the summer of 1998, while on vacation in Turkey, Navalnaya met Alexei Navalny, a lawyer, also a resident of Moscow.