Kremlin trying to blackmail me, Navalny’s mother claims

ALEXEI NAVALNY’S mother has claimed that the Kremlin is attempting to blackmail her into burying her son in secret.

Lyudmila Navalnaya said that she had been taken to a morgue in the town of Salekhard, near to where her son, the prominent Russian opposition figure, had been imprisoned until his death last Friday. Navalny’s family have waited days to get access to his body after he collapsed and died in the Arctic penal colony where he was imprisoned.

Authorities claimed his death was caused by “sudden death syndrome”. But Navalny’s family have alleged the Kremlin murdered him, which Moscow denies. Ms Navalnaya said she had been shown his body and death certificate, which stated that her son had died of natural causes.

But instead of being able to take him with her for a family burial, she said the authorities there pressured her to bury her son in secret, threatening to “do something” to his corpse if she did not comply.

“By law, they should have immediately handed over Alexei’s body to me, but they are still yet to do so,” she said.

“Instead, they are blackmailing me, setting me conditions on where, when and how Alexei should be buried. This is illegal. One inspector is said to have told her: “Time is not on your side, the body is decomposing.”

Ms Navalnaya said she wanted her son’s supporters, who have braved a crackdown by authorities to lay tributes across Russian cities.

Hundreds of people have apparently been arrested in the wake of Navalny’s death as they mourned him. Police are alleged to have beaten protesters and dismantled the makeshift memorials.