Navalny family receive his body
WARSAW: The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed to his mother more than a week after he died in an Arctic prison colony, his team said.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, died on February 16 in one of Russia’s toughest prisons in northern Siberia. He was serving a 19-year sentence on charges denounced by Putin’s critics as political retribution for his opposition activity.
“Alexei’s body was handed over to his mother,” a spokesperson for Navalny’s team, Kira Yarmysh said on X.
“Many thanks to all those who demanded this with us.” For a week, Russian officials had refused to give Lyudmila Navalnaya custody of her son’s body. Tens of thousands of Russians had signed a petition calling for Navalny’s body to be released.
His mother had travelled to the town of Salekhard in the YamaloNenets region, the nearest settlement to the prison colony to recover it.
Navalny’s team said they had filed a lawsuit to obtain the body. They accused local officials of having threatened to bury him on the prison grounds if his mother did not agree to a “secret” funeral.
On Saturday, plans for the funeral were still unclear, Yarmysh wrote on X. “Lyudmila Ivanovna is still in Salekhard. The funeral is still pending,” she wrote.
“We do not know if the authorities will interfere to carry it out as the family wants and as Alexei deserves.” His team says the Kremlin is trying to block a public funeral, which could turn into a show of support for Navalny’s movement and his opposition to Putin.
Russian authorities said Navalny died of “natural causes” after he lost consciousness following a walk.
Yulia Navalnaya continued her attack on Putin for what she said was his role in her husband’s death and the initial refusal to release his body. “What Putin is doing now is hatred. No, not even hatred, it’s some kind of Satanism,” she said.