Lyubov Sobol is a lawyer and activist at Mr Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. The 32-year-old has vowed to continue criticising the Russian government despite the group’s leader still remaining ill in hospital.
Tests found ‘cholinesterase inhibitor’ chemicals had poisoned Mr Navalny – a group of compounds linked to Novichock, the same nerve agent used in the attack on Sergei Skripal in the UK.
Ms Sobol has outspokenly claimed the Kremlin is responsible for Mr Navalny’s poisoning.
She said in an interview: “For me, it’s absolutely obvious. I’m not afraid to speak it out loud, that behind the poisoning is exactly the Kremlin.”
She added the chemical used in the attack on Mr Navalny is a “combat substance” which could not be bought in a pharmacy.
Ms Sobol has worked with the activist for around 10 years, and has said she is now working around the clock to continue Mr Navalny’s work against the establishment.
She told The Telegraph she has been working “24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
“People who were indifferent to the authorities and the opposition have come round to our side because they’ve seen the dirty methods the Kremlin uses.”
The activist has said she is “saddened but not surprised” by the incident which has left Mr Navalny in a coma.
Indeed, politically-motivated attacks in Russia have happened several times over the years against anti-Putin activists.
One man, Boris Nemtsov, was killed in 2015 after being shot many times in the back whilst walking across a bridge in Moscow.
READ: Putin crackdown: Opposition activist savagely beaten in Russia
The activist has referred to the governing United Russia Party as “crooks and thieves” – a slogan which activists have appropriated.
Ms Sobol herself has also been victim of a sudden and mysterious attack for which the assailant was never caught.
In 2016, her husband was stabbed in the leg with a syringe containing a substance which caused him to go into convulsions – an attack she believes was related to her work.
She told Russian newspaper the Moscow Times: “I understood in 2011 what the dangers were, and I am clear about them now.
“Of course I am scared for my daughter, but that’s why I am working here: to leave her with a better country to grow up in.”
She has claimed the Anti-Corruption Foundation has offices in 40 regions of Russia with the aim of maintaining pressure on the Kremlin.