Joe Biden meets Alexei Navalny's widow and daughter in California

US President calls activist's death a terrible loss but says his 'legacy will carry on' in Russia and globally

US President Joe Biden sits with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya, family of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in San Francisco, California. Photo: X / @POTUS

US President Joe Biden on Thursday expressed his “heartfelt condolences” to the widow and daughter of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny – Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya – days after his death at a penal colony in the Arctic Circle.

The three met in San Francisco, California, where Mr Navalny's daughter Dasha is studying at Stanford University.

“The President expressed his admiration for Alexei Navalny’s extraordinary courage and his legacy of fighting against corruption and for a free and democratic Russia, in which the rule of law applies equally to everyone,” the White House said in a statement.

“The President emphasised that Alexei’s legacy will carry on through people across Russia and around the world mourning his loss and fighting for freedom, democracy and human rights.”

Yulia Navalnaya had flown to the western US state to be with her daughter.

She and her husband also have a son named Zakhar.

“My dear girl. I flew here to hug you and support you, and you are sitting and supporting me,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote in a post on X, alongside a photo of the two of them.

“We will definitely cope with everything, my dear one.

“It's so good that you're at my side. I love you.”

Yulia Navalnaya addressed world leaders at the Munich Security Conference last week, shortly after her husband's death was confirmed.

“I want that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his entire circle, Putin’s friends, his administration, to know that they will carry responsibility for what they have done with our country, with my family and with my husband,” she said.

Mr Biden affirmed his intention to impose major new sanctions against Russia in response to Mr Navalny's death and the war in Ukraine.

The latest measures, expected to be released on Friday, will take aim at the country's defence and industrial bases, and sources of revenue for the economy, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan previously said.

Mr Navalny fell unconscious and died suddenly on Friday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony above the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said.