Yulia “Navalnaya is a happy widow.” The last to say it, according to those who perpetuate the narrative that Alexei Navalny's wife is a “merry widow”, is the American psychologist Paul Ekman, one of the pioneers of the association of facial expressions and emotions . Know with which he would have analyzed Navalnaya's face during her speech at the Munich security conference to claim that she “could not contain her relief and joy.” In reality, this is a new attempt by Russian propaganda to discredit Putin's opponent, who died in suspicious circumstances after being transferred to a maximum security prison in the Russian Arctic. In fact, psychologist Paul Ekman did not say that Yulia Navalnaya was “a happy widow”, nor did he make any statements about analyzes of her facial expressions in public.
For those in a hurry:
- A video is circulating in which psychologist Paul Ekman claims that Yulia Navalnaïa would be a “happy widow” who could not wait for her husband to die.
- The video mimics the style of those from the American Psychological Association.
- But the APA never published it.
- Paul Ekman has denied making these statements.
- Psychologist Paul Ekman therefore did not say that Yulia Navalnaïa was “a happy widow”
Analyzes
Let's see a screenshot of one of the messages being checked. The full video and screenshots from the film are circulating as if they were posted on the American Psychological Association's social media channels. The description reads:
Psychologist Paul Ekman: Yulia Navalnaya could not contain her joy and relief when speaking after the death of her husband in Munich. The author of the book “Fool Me If You Can” analyzed the behavior of Yulia Navalnaya and drew attention to her strange “smile”. “Yulia Navalnaya's reaction is not that of a woman who recently learned of the death of her beloved husband. Before us is a powerful woman who, after the death of her husband, finally received all the attention of this world. This is what she wanted, so that the whole world would only talk about her,” says psychology. Egocentric… then present in the USA while her husband died (maybe because I'm not convinced. Suspicious moment for me) in Siberia… why? With what money and by whom do you support yourself there?
First, the book Fool me if you can does not exist. Second, Navalnaya's theory of so-called happiness is unfounded, as we have already seen several times above. Open. There is talk of extramarital affairs that those propagating this theory have tried to prove with fake travel reservations, fake videos, fake audios of Navalny's mother and decontextualized photos.
Paul Ekman's denial: he did not say that Yulia Navalnaya was “a happy widow”
However, Paul Ekman has never made such statements. The psychologist's entourage personally denied this information to the independent Russian newspaper Dozd. Staff explained: “Our business is not to provide advice on personal, legal or political matters. It is also the policy of the Ekman Group to refrain from commenting on the truthfulness and/or non-verbal behavior of others.”
The video never published by the APA
In the video, you can see the American Psychological Association logo at the top right. The content, from the day of the announcement of Navalny's death, last February 16, until the time of writing this article, February 28, 2024, is not published on the social networks of the American Psychological Association. Neither on Facebook, nor on Instagram, nor on X. This is not the first time that videos containing false information have circulated on social media imitating the style of reliable sources. Disinformation between Russia and Ukraine has been targeted BBCon at least three different occasions, including one with Cat BellingAnd Deutsche Welle.
Conclusions
A video is circulating in which psychologist Paul Ekman claims that Yulia Navalnaïa would be a happy widow who could not wait for her husband to die. The video mimics the style of those from the American Psychological Association. But the APA never published it. Paul Ekman has denied making these statements. Psychologist Paul Ekman therefore did not say that Yulia Navalnaïa was “a happy widow”
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