Jesus and the money changers in the Temple

The Gospel reading at yesterday’s Mass made for an interesting read. It was the story of Jesus throwing the money lenders out of the Temple.

Menionted earlier in this blog, the three wealthiest men int he US own the worth of half the population of the United States.

A modern fighter jet can cost up to $300 million dollars. 

The shares of the Düsseldorf armaments facility, Rheinmetall have soared since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The company is in existence since the end of the 19th century.

The rights and wrongs of the world of money is always a nuanced subject in Catholic teaching and the pastoral letters of bishops.

And yet when it comes to most, if not all, matters of personal sexuality, ‘grave sin’ is the main menu.

Confusing, to say the least?

Jesus is usually understanding and sympathetic with the poor, weak and marginalised. He shows a different side when it comes to his relationship with money and power.

Is that what the churches do?

Award-winning broadcaster blazed a trail in Irish radio

Below is an obituary of Máire Ní Mhurchú. It appears in weekend edition of The Irish Times.

Máire is/was the sister of Dominican priest Canice Murphy.

What it doesn’t say in the obit is that the man she married at 69 was an old childhood fling of hers.

Obviously, just like her brother she must have been a super person, kind, honest and very smart.

---

Cork-based RTÉ broadcaster Máire Ní Mhurchú has died aged 91. She was an award-winning presenter and later head of regional radio broadcasting in Cork city during the time when Raidió Éireann offered a radio service for Cork listeners for a few hours each day.

The Echo Boys, a profile of the newspaper boys who sold the Evening Echo on the streets of Cork city and Someone To Love, a two-part radio series on the harsh life in a convent orphanage in the 1960s, were among her most celebrated documentaries.

In 1969, she won a Jacob’s Award (Irish television and radio awards) for what was described as her “intuitive sympathy” for those she spoke with and her enthusiasm for broadcasting.

She was also responsible for launching the careers of a large number of well-known contemporary RTÉ broadcasters including Mary Wilson, Tony O’Donoghue, Eileen Whelan, Ger Canning and Marty Morrissey.

Following Marie Murphy’s death (she took on the Irish version of her name when she joined RTÉ), many of her former colleagues and mentees recalled her beautiful, gentle radio voice, her quiet dignity and her elegance.

RTÉ Radio 1 broadcaster and Morning Ireland presenter Mary Wilson said it was Ní Mhurchú who first hired her along with Eileen Whelan and Tony O’Donoghue. “We had the run of the Union Quay – as the HQ of the RTÉ Radio Cork opt-out, Cork 89FM, was known. Under Máire’s guidance and under the direction of the station’s three excellent producers, Pat O’Donovan, Aidan Stanley and Dan Collins, we were given opportunities to report on stories the length and breadth of the country, many of them of national significance,” said Wilson.

Reflecting on those years, Wilson added that Ní Mhurchú was managing a radio station long before women were seen in such roles in Ireland. “She certainly blazed a trail for others to follow. She gave us the opportunity to break into broadcasting and I like to think that she looked at the careers we each carved out in RTÉ with some pride. She wasn’t given to micromanaging but she did tell me it was important to put ‘a smile in your voice’. Good advice that I try to follow.”

Sports commentator Ger Canning said he owed his career as a sports journalist to Ní Mhurchú. “In 1978, I trained as a newsreader in RTÉ but I declined the offer to become a newsreader as I wanted to get into sport. I went back to Cork and she welcomed me in and gave me my first-ever full-time commentary at the Cork county hurling final between Blackrock and Glen Rovers. The day before she rang me to say, ‘Do your best, get the scores right and it will be okay’.”

Radio presenter Alf McCarthy, who grew up close to Ní Mhurchú in Cork, also worked with her and remembers the strict, hierarchical atmosphere that existed in the Cork office at the time. “Raidió Éireann was very much part of the Civil Service at that time and she brought a sense of order. When we arrived as the young and groovy presenters, there was a clash of cultures in a sense. I took over from Mark Cagney when he moved to 2FM,” recalls McCarthy.

Ní Mhurchú began her radio career in RTÉ Cork local radio in the 1950s. At that time, the Cork station was on air for a limited number of hours a week, relaying the national radio service at other times. It remained the only local radio station in Ireland until the pirate radio stations and later the independent stations began.

Enthusiastic right from the start, Ní Mhurchú carried the heavy Uher 4000 DS portable tape recorder to schools and homes to record hours and hours of interviews with children for several series. These included Young Munster on the Air, Munster Journal and Children Talking. She also worked with broadcaster Síle Ní Bhriain on a series entitled A Woman’s World.

And, with a team of helpers, she put together the annual hour-long programme about the Cork Choral Festival, which attracted choirs from around the world for a number of years.

Her piece for radio on the Echo Boys was filmed for television in 1977. The boys told her how they earned tuppence for every copy they sold and how the best stand was down by Ford’s car factory. Remarking on the young age of some of the sellers, Ní Mhurchú was told by one of the main distributors in Cork that he, too, was selling the papers at seven and eight years of age and that the experience helped give him a sense of the outside world.

In 1989, Ní Mhurchú was promoted to divisional head of Cork Local Radio, which was rebranded as Cork 89FM when the first independent radio stations were being licensed. She retired in 1998.

The radio station was subsequently closed down as a loss-making enterprise years before the current RTÉ television and radio studios in Cork city emerged as the country’s second biggest broadcasting hub.

Máire Ní Mhurchú was born in Dublin, the eldest of five children of Nora (nee McCarthy) and Lieut Col John Murphy. The family moved to the Cork suburb of Ballinlough when she was 13 when her father took up a role in the Defence Forces there.

His subsequent death while the children were still young meant that following her secondary school education at St Aloysius’ Girls School in Carrigtwohill, Ní Mhurchú began her working life to bring income to the family. Before joining RTÉ Cork local radio, she worked with the Dutch consul for a time. She remained in her family home to look after her mother until her death in the early 1990s.

After her retirement, Ní Mhurchú stayed in Cork and at the age of 69, she married a widower, retired Lieut Col Paddy Kelly.

She spent the last number of years of her life in Bishopscourt Residential Care in Liskillea, Co Cork.

Ní Mhurchú is survived by her husband, her two stepdaughters Toni (Marie) and Carol-Anne, and her brother Pádraig. She was predeceased by her sister Sr MF de Chantal and brothers John and Fr Canice (Michael) Murphy.

Martin’s colleagues should be praising her openness

Justine McCarthy’s column in The Irish Times yesterday. It makes perfect sense.

For as long as audiences find ventriloquists entertaining, our politicians will never be out of work. Their talent for speaking not only out one side of their mouths but out both sides simultaneously truly is a wonder to behold. And, by golly, did we behold it on Tuesday night when a marathon Oireachtas committee interrogation of Minister for Media Catherine Martin produced a virtuoso performance of political doublespeak.

The State’s public-service broadcaster is swirling crazily in the rapids of unprecedented scandals, at risk of capsizing and being swept away. The Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media is rightly concerned and demanding “full transparency” from RTÉ.

But when the Minister appeared before them, the committee members accused her of being too transparent altogether. The 3½-hour encounter in committee room two boiled down to one question for Martin: What on earth possessed you to go on the telly and tell everyone the truth?

Martin was summoned by the committee after she refrained on Prime Time from expressing confidence in RTÉ’s chairwoman, Siún Ní Raghallaigh. This was followed within hours by the latter’s resignation.

Repeatedly and incorrectly

It has since transpired that the former chairwoman had repeatedly and incorrectly assured the Minister during meetings on Monday and Wednesday last week that she and the RTÉ board had played no role in rubber-stamping goodbye deals worth hundreds of thousands of euro to the broadcaster’s former director of strategy, Rory Coveney, and financial director Richard Collins.

Thus, on Monday evening, Martin had unwittingly misinformed journalists at a press conference that the board was uninvolved in the controversial agreements, the details of which remain under the seal of legal confidentiality clauses.

It was not the Minister alone who had been misled but every citizen of the State, who are the owners of RTÉ through the Minister’s sole shareholding.

The right thing to do was to correct the public record. Doing so would make it obvious that Martin had been misinformed.

Politicians have been rushing to media microphones advocating the people’s entitlement to know how much the pay-off packages cost. The committee – to its credit – had discovered the previous week that Rory Coveney, the brains behind the Toy Show the Musical flop, received a farewell handshake which is reckoned to be about €200,000, despite his departure from Montrose last summer having been presented as a resignation. By Tuesday night, though, some committee members seemed to have decided that the less juicy matters of procedures and accountability were best left to a discreet silence.

“You were very forthcoming with the answer when Miriam O’Callaghan put it to you about the role of the board. In other words, it didn’t have to be dragged out of you,” remarked Christopher O’Sullivan, a normally impressive first-time TD. “Do you regret being so open and honest about it live on air?” Then he added, as if general absolution is a given for political subterfuge. “But, sure, look, all politicians are accused of being experts at evading questions.”

“What was the hurry about going on Prime Time? You didn’t need to be there,” said Thomas Gould, after Martin stated she had made a commitment two days earlier to appear on the programme.

“You could have backed out of Prime Time ... This is politics,” said Senator Shane Cassells.

“A little bit of misinformation” was how Senator Timmy Dooley characterised Ní Raghallaigh’s persistent denials that she or RTÉ’s board had been involved in agreeing secret walking-away money.

The barminess of the situation would have fitted right into a Callan’s Kicks sketch. Here were politicians baying for full disclosure from RTÉ and decrying its “drip-feed” of information amid a welter of scandals distinguished by secrecy and cover-up while, at the same time, chastising the Minister for her public candour.

If RTÉ had been truthful about Ryan Tubridy’s payments in the first place and if the organisation had operated with openness and frankness, the series of unfortunate events that has unfolded in the past eight months would not have happened.

“I believe a Minister must be truthful,” Martin countered with a riposte as shocking to the body politic as an electric volt. Maybe “it’s a problem”, she posited, that politicians are accustomed to evading questions.

The doublespeak did not stop with the selective dispensability of transparency. That the departed chairwoman had not given her Minister accurate and relevant information about three different matters on “numerous” occasions, according to Martin’s version of events, seemed not to bother the questioners, with the exception of Senator Micheál Carrigy.

Dogged professionalism

One of the constant refrains emanating from Leinster House since June has been concern that RTÉ’s cosy inner circle and its corporate recklessness rebound on the majority of its employees. Oireachtas members have praised staff for their dogged professionalism in the unrelenting storm of scandals.

But on Tuesday night these sympathetic politicians were berating the Minister out the other side of their mouths for not abruptly cancelling her scheduled television appearance. Had she done so, after learning on her way to the studio that the press was about to report that Ní Raghallaigh had misinformed her, she would have left the Prime Time team in the lurch, frantically trying to fill its main slot as the programme was about to go on air.

We are living through a dangerous time of propaganda, of accurate information being arbitrarily dismissed as misinformation to suit biased narratives, and of lies being peddled as truths. The damage this disregard for honesty can inflict is visible in the flames that have been licking buildings around the country that were targeted, in various instances, because some anti-immigrant agitators falsely claimed they were earmarked to house asylum seekers. There is a tinderbox in our midst that grows bigger and more explosive the more facts are relegated. In this climate, Martin’s Leinster House colleagues should be lauding her for her openness, not using it as a stick with which to beat her.

She summed up the hypocrisy succinctly when she asked the committee: “What was the alternative? For me to conceal the facts?”

The answering silence rumbled as ominously as an approaching superstorm.

Berlin transport workers and climate activists unite

Today in Berlin environmentalists and transport workers unite in an interesting strike. 

A touch of workers of the world unite.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/01/two-worlds-colliding-berlin-transport-workers-and-climate-activists-unite-over-rights

Yulia Navalnaya promises to continue her husband’s work

Powerful words from Yulia Navalnaya after the death of her husband Alexei Navalny:

 "I will carry on Alexei Navalny's fight. I will continue to fight for our country. And I urge you to stand by my side. To share not only bitterness and endless pain but also rage, anger and hatred towards those who dared to kill our future.

"I am addressing you with the words of Alexei, in which I believe very much: 'It is not a shame to do little, it is a shame to do nothing, it is a shame to allow yourself to be intimidated.

"We must use every opportunity to fight against war, corruption, and injustice, to struggle for fair elections and freedom of speech, and to fight to get our country back.

"Keep on fighting, and do not give up. I am not afraid - and you should not be scared of anything either.”

The funeral of  Alexey Navalny will be held in Moscow on Friday.

Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya announced the funeral date yesterday. She said she was unsure if it would pass off peacefully and that plans for a civil memorial service had been blocked.

Bishop clarifies nature of blessing given to same-sex couple

Confusing is one word that comes to mind. Aspects of this must remind the reader of fadó fadó when ‘dodgy’ Catholic weddings took place in the sacristy early in the morning.

There’s always that underlying thinking, once no scandal is given it’s ok. ‘The faithful must not be scandalised.'

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2024/02/bishop-clarifies-nature-of-blessing-given-to-celebrity-same-sex-couple/

All your bets are off in posh bookmakers’ shops

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regionals newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Have you ever been inside a bookmaker’s shop? I have on a number of occasions of late and I have been surprised with what I have seen. 

Before my current visits to the shop my last time would have been fadó fadó. Back then they were dingy places, people smoking, maybe sawdust on the floor and an all-round offending smell. For the non-gambler like me at the time they were not a nice place to be.

No, I have not taken to gambling. I’ve been visiting this particular betting shop while I wait for my bus. 

The bus stop is across the road from the shop. I’m wondering how long it will be before they realise I’m not a betting man and throw me out.

It’s a great place to wait, especially if it is raining. There are lovely soft seats and always a day’s newspaper at hand and indeed, some bookie shops offer free coffee.

The shop I visit has panels of screens showing racing and football games all over the world .You can gamble on anything. I saw one ad offering money back if your team is at any stage two goals up.

I have never been in the shop on my own, there is always someone there and I have never seen a woman betting in the shop. 

On one occasion I was there I counted 10 men fully focused on the job at hand. Silence reigned, as did a great sense of seriousness. There was a newspaper on a table beside a man. He was not reading it but I was scared to ask him if I could have it. And once a bet was won or lost, it was on to the next bet.

Over the last few weeks I have heard on radio and television a number of people speak, about their gambling addiction. 

The gambling problem in Ireland is said to be far worse than feared. Addicts are spending over €1,000 a month on gambling and one in 30 adults have a problem with gambling.

We spend €5.5 billion on gambling in Ireland every year, and half of that sum is spent by people who experience ‘multiple negative effects’ from betting. 

Approximately 12 per cent of Irish adults bet weekly with a bookmaker.

More than 40 per cent of us regularly play the National Lottery. I seldom do it but when I do I’m inclined to do it again the following week. The same goes with the Lotto scratch cards. If I buy one and win €4, I’m inclined to gamble again. I often wonder how close I am to becoming an addict. But so far Alleluia, it hasn’t happened. When Francis was elected pope I put a fiver on Cardinal Mauro Piacenza. Maybe fortunately, for more reasons than one, I lost my bet.

And then there’s the phone. I’ve seen people on trains gambling on their mobiles. And it’s so easy to set up an account and off you go. I wonder do phone gamblers realise that a mere five per cent of phone gamblers come out winning. Gambling is a mug’s game and can be a human disaster.

A number to call if you want to rid yourself of the addiction is 1800 936 725. Good luck and don’t be afraid to seek help. Good luck.

Always the temptation to go for the highfalutin project

The new Dublin MetroLink is back in the news. Or should it be called the old Dublin MetroLink? It’s been in the news now for a number of decades.

The latest estimated cost o the project is €9.5bn, though Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that an extreme cat scenario would see costs rise to €23 billion.

What’s going to cost an additional €13.5bn? Surely that has to be a matter of 'throwing figures around’?

In the meantime why does the State ask Irish Rail to build a spur from the DART/Belfast rail line to Dublin Airport? At a much reduced cost and done in a fraction of the time passengers from all over Ireland would have a rail link to Dublin Airport.

Similarly in Kerry, Irish Rail should have build a spur from Farranfore to Kerry Airport and over the years develop a high speed track from Mallow to Tralee.

Why go for such highfalutin projects when far more simple solutions are staring us in the face.

Ads are all about being catchy, cool and seductive

The world of advertising is an expensive business. Ads cost a lot of money. Much thought and expertise goes into the making of ads.

Do you read or watch ads? What ads catch your attention? WIth television ads do you jump for the remote control once it’s ad time?

Ads of their nature attempt to be cool, clever is their middle name. Ads can be fascinating, slick too.

Supervalu has an ad that runs: 'Real People Real Food', or is it 'Real Food Real People'. Whether or which is it not nonsense? 

Are not all people real and what food is not real?

An ad’s purpose is to draw attention, to catch the eye and that’s exactly what this Supervalu ad did, at least for one person passing it on the upper deck of the number 14 bus yesterday.

And have you noticed how the pronunciation of the word has changed in recent years? Fadó fadó the stress was on the ‘advert', today it’s moved to the ‘tisement’.

In the past the sophisticates laughed at those who stressed the ‘tisement’.

A funny old world indeed.

God is not the exclusive property of any one group

The 'Thinking Anew' column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

One of the best teachers I ever had would often, if not always, say at some stage in his lecture, with an element of exasperation in his voice that he knew nothing.

 That same man is highly intelligent. The story goes that a woman walked into a church one day when he was celebrating Mass. She looked up towards the altar, recognised him and out loud said: “The brains of Cabra.” 

Philip Gleeson infused in his students a great curiosity for the subject he was teaching. After all, he was only following in the footsteps of St Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274), who in his old age said that all his works were like straw. Aquinas  is considered one of the great theologians of the church. Indeed he was made a Doctor of the Church in 1567.

When reading tomorrow’s Gospel (Mark 9: 2 - 10) I am  reminded of my lecturer. Jesus was opening new doors to his disciples but they in their innocence or ignorance, sometimes missed the point.

When Jesus takes on a new persona, it confuses Peter, James and John and in their confusion they suggest making three tents, one for him, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Indeed, Peter admits that he is so frightened he really does not know what to say.

I find great solace in tomorrow’s Gospel as I do in the entrance hymn: “It is your face O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face from me.” (Psalm 109). That was written the best part of 3,000 years ago. The author is beseeching the Lord to make himself known. He wants answers, just as did the apostles on the mountain with Jesus.

Maybe it is something in my DNA, my own background, the life I lead but I am dumbfounded when I hear people ‘explain’ or talk with absolute certainty about the existence of God. Have they forgotten that Jesus often mystified his apostles? Does such certainty not run contrary to the story in today’s Gospel? Surely it must? 

The greatness and mystery of God cannot be conveyed by our words. They cannot be more than tiny pointers to  the  transcendence of that supreme being we dare call God?

In the first reading from Genesis we read: “God put Abraham to the test.” And again we see how Abraham got it wrong. Wouldn’t it be awful folly to think we have God in the palm of our hands, and we know the full story. That’s what the sin of idolatry is. 

I’m inclined to think everything we say and think about God has to be a type of fumbling about in our heads.

Nobody owns God and God is not the exclusive ‘property’ of any one group. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God and that does put flesh and blood on our understanding in faith of God. The kindness, goodness, empathy of Jesus Christ give us a tiny hint into the reality of God. 

The Jesus of the Gospel is a person who goes out of his way to be merciful and good and especially to the marginalised and less privileged. 

We are in the early days of Lent, just one full week of it behind us. There is still time to set out a plan or road map for the next few weeks, setting aside  some time for thinking about and in conversation with God, asking to be enlightened so that we can live better lives. 

Every time we genuinely reach out to the weak and marginalised,  we are increasing/improving our faith in God. In copying Jesus’s care for the less fortunate, surely, we are setting out on a personal pathway  towards God?

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus wanted no fanfare, indeed, he warned his disciples that day on the mountain to tell no-one  what they had seen?

Sometimes I ask myself what Jesus would make of social media. The best answer I have come up with is this: do good with it where you can. 

Isn’t interesting how we are saturated with an all-knowing social media. A hint of humility might well prove a game changer in the current climate.

Clever tips from Pope Francis about fasting during Lent

In the words of Pope Francis:

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

Fast from worries and have trust in God.

Fast from complaints; contemplate simplicity. 

Fast from pressures and be prayerful.

Fast from bitterness; fill your hearts with joy.

Fast from selfishness and be compassionate.

Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

Fast from words; be silent and listen.

Yulia Navalnaya takes the fight to Putin

The Irish Times today.

For years, Yulia Navalnaya eschewed the political spotlight.

She often appeared by her husband Alexei Navalny’s side but left the anti-regime campaigning to him – even during the three years he spent in Russia behind bars.

Now, in the aftermath of his death in a remote Arctic prison colony, Navalnaya, a trained economist and mother of two, has vowed to take on his struggle, humanising the late Navalny and his cause.

“I was by Alexei’s side all these years: elections, protests, house arrest, searches, detention, prison, poisoning, protests again, arrest again and prison again,” Navalnaya said in a video address posted on Monday.

Dressed in a simple navy dress, her voice occasionally breaking, the 47-year-old widow asked Russians to “share her fury” and not give up the fight to overthrow president Vladimir Putin, who she accused of ordering her husband’s murder.

“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 said.

Hours after learning of the sudden death of her husband, she spoke to world leaders at the Munich Security Conference last Friday and urged them to redouble their efforts against Putin. On Monday, she toured Brussels like a visiting foreign leader, meeting European Council president Charles Michel and Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief.

“She isn’t just married to the man, she’s married to the cause,” said Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgian MEP and former prime minister who also met her on Monday.

Navalnaya had played a crucial role in her husband’s work behind the scenes, friends say, particularly after he was jailed in 2021 when he returned to Russia after an attempt on his life with nerve agent.

“Alexei Navalny the politician is two people. Yulia and Alexei Navalny,” said Yevgenia Albats, an exiled Russian journalist and a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

“Alexei was such a strong leader that he inevitably suppressed the people around him. They might be strong, wonderful independent politicians, but none of them could ever hold a candle to Alexei. And Yulia can.”

Belarus

The speed with which the spotlight fell on Navalnaya has evoked comparisons with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who emerged as the unlikely face of Belarusian opposition following her spouse’s detention in 2020 when he ran against the country’s strongman, Alexander Lukashenko.

Tsikhanouskaya made it on to the ballot instead of Sergei Tikhanovsky and galvanised public support that culminated in widespread protests against Lukashenko’s re-election, prompting her to flee the country after a brutal crackdown.

The two women shared an embrace hours after Navalny’s death was announced. Tsikhanouskaya told the Financial Times they “understood each other” without a word. “I don’t think she even had the time to properly take it in and deal with her grief,” she said.

Navalnaya’s popularity could make her “the voice of her husband and the Russians who don’t support Putin,” Tsikhanouskaya added. “But that’s very tough and very risky.”

“First, she has to try to unite her supporters and all of the Russian opposition ... And then Yulia’s at risk herself, because Putin’s secret services will work directly against her. They will threaten her and try to break and demoralise her.”

“I don’t think she’ll give in,” the Belarusian added.

Natalia Arno, president of the Free Russia Foundation, said Navalnaya could potentially solve the squabbling that has long plagued Russia’s opposition.

“The main problem in the opposition camp . . . was that nobody had legitimacy,” she said. The elevation of Navalnaya “might remove some questions”, as the “iron lady” stood a good chance of being supported by the Russian pro-democracy community as well as western governments.

In the wake of Navalny’s death, some observers had questioned why he had chosen to go back to Russia at all, given the likely fate that awaited him. In her video, Navalnaya addressed that criticism: “Why did he come back? . . . Why such a sacrifice? After all, he could live in peace and take care of himself and his family But he couldn’t.

“Alexei loved Russia . . . So deeply and sincerely that he was ready to give his life for it.”

Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist, said the speed at which Russians had coalesced around previously unknown anti-war figures showed the demand for an alternative to Putin remained high.

“It strikes me that she’s more radical than he is . . . That might put some people off, because a lot of them are scared of violence and chaos and sticking with Putin, not realising that he’s not the antidote to chaos but the source of it,” she said.

Navalny’s widow would be the most prominent female opposition figure in Russia in at least two decades – a noticeable gear shift for a patriarchal country where the Kremlin is trumpeting “traditional values” such as limiting abortion rights and pushing women to have more children.

Irina Khakamada, Putin’s most credible female challenger for president, faded into obscurity after winning 4 per cent of the vote in 2004. Reformist politician Galina Starovoitova was murdered in St Petersburg in 1998.

But Sergei Guriev, provost of Sciences Po university in France and a long-time friend of the family, said rampant sexism could work to Navalnaya’s advantage. “She has no ‘anti- rating’. There is no compromising material against her. Of course, Russian propaganda has already started to say that she is a puppet. But it will be very clear very soon that Yulia is a strong and independent leader.”

A few hours after her video was released, the “Feminist Anti-War Resistance” (Far), one of Russia’s fastest-growing protest initiatives, issued a statement saying it supported Navalnaya.

“The transformation of Yulia Navalnaya from the role of a wife, which she previously insisted on, to a political figure, will be very inspiring for many women in Russia,” said Daria Serenko, a Russian writer and a Far founder.

“If she has found the strength to act, we cannot afford to wallow and spread the idea through social media that they have killed our hope.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024