his mother Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny On Thursday, she released a video saying she was allowed to see her son’s body but officials tried to force her to hold a “secret funeral.”
Lyudmila Navalnaya trying to pick up her son’s dead body from Saturdaysaid he spent 24 hours with the Salekhard Investigative Committee at the morgue in the Siberian city of Salekhard, near the prison where Navalny died, but without his lawyer.
Navalny said that investigators were “blackmailing” him into saying that they would “do something with the body” if he did not agree to a secret burial.
The protest movement led by anti-corruption activist Navalny organized large demonstrations against the government of President Vladimir Putin. A funeral can strengthen a beleaguered movement.
Russian authorities have already struggled to curb growing support for the opposition following Navalny’s death. According to the rights group, OVD-Info, some 400 protesters were detained As they paid tribute to Navalny’s memory throughout Russia over the weekend.
Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, said in X that the medical opinion given to Navalny stated that Navalny died of natural causes. The Russian authorities refused to release his body until the preliminary investigation.
“I’m making this video because they started threatening me.” Navalny said an official told him: “Time is not on your side, corpses are rotting.”
NBC News cannot confirm Navalnaya’s claims. Russian officials could not be reached for comment.
In a video released on Monday, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death and said her husband was murdered. poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. He further stated that his body was kept until the traces of poison disappeared.
The Kremlin has denied the accusation of poisoning.
Russian officials said that 47-year-old Navalny has been fighting against official corruption for years Putin’s the government it belongs to surviving at least one poisoning attemptwhile dying He is being held in a Siberian prison On Friday.
According to the Russian Prison Service, Navalny fell ill after a walk on Friday and almost immediately passed out.
Ivan Zhdanov, an ally of Alexei Navalny and director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, commented on the conditions of his release in a series of posts on Telegram, calling it “low and despicable”.
According to him, the officials want Navalny’s funeral to be held “secretly, without a proper farewell.” They want to bring me to the edge of the cemetery, to the head of the new grave, and say, “Here is my son.”
“I will not agree to this,” said Navalny. “I want all of you who cared about Alexey and for whom his death is a personal tragedy, to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him,” she said.