Navalny’s ‘killers’ refusing to hand over body, allies say

MOSCOW, (AFP): Alexei Navalny's supporters on Saturday accused Russian authorities of being "killers" who were "covering their tracks" by refusing to hand over his body, as the Kremlin stayed silent despite Western accusations and a flood of tributes to the late opposition leader.

The 47-year-old Kremlin critic died in an Arctic prison on Friday after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters.

His death, which the West has blamed on the Kremlin, deprives Russia's opposition of its figurehead a month before elections poised to extend President Vladimir Putin's grip on power.

On Saturday, Navalny's mother and his lawyer were refused access to his body, after arriving in the region of the remote prison colony where he had been held. "It's obvious that the killers want to cover their tracks and are therefore not handing over Alexei's body, hiding it even from his mother," Navalny's team said on Telegram.

Russian police on Saturday moved swiftly to break up small protests and memorials in honour of the deceased Kremlin critic. They arrested more than 340 people in 30 cities, the OVD-Info rights group said.

After initially pushing back at accusations they were to blame, the Kremlin made no mention of his death on Saturday, despite an angry chorus of condemnation from Western leaders. G7 foreign ministers meeting in Munich held a minute's silence for Navalny, who led street protests in Russia for more than a decade.