Alexei Navalny's mother on Tuesday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to hand over her son's body “immediately,” with the opposing team accusing authorities of hiding his remains to cover up a “murder.”
• Also read: Jailed Russian opposition leader Yashin vows to “fight tyranny” after Navalny's death.
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Since Alexei Navalny's death was announced on February 16 in an Arctic prison, his mother and a lawyer have tried in vain to gain access to his remains.
However, according to the opposing team, Russian investigators assured that they would only return his body in the next 14 days to conduct an “expertise”. A deadline that lawyers say could be extended by weeks.
In a video published on Tuesday, his mother Lyudmila Navalnaïa appealed directly to the Russian president to win his case, while Mr Putin did not publicly comment on the death of his main opponent after three years in prison.
“I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, the solution to this problem depends only on you. Let me finally see my son. “I ask for the immediate return of Alexei’s body so that I can bury him in a humane manner,” she said, filmed near the penal colony where her son died.
- Listen to the interview with USSR specialist Michel Roche on Richard Martineau's show QUB :
“Return Alexei's body”
The Kremlin did not immediately respond. On Tuesday, however, he rejected the allegations of Alexei Navalny's widow, who had claimed the day before that the Russian president had her husband killed in prison.
“These are gross and completely unfounded accusations against the Russian head of state, but given the fact that Yulia Navalnaya became a widow a few days ago, I will not comment on them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“I don't care how a murderer's spokesman comments on my words. Return Alexei's body and let us bury him with dignity. Don’t stop people from saying goodbye to him,” replied Yulia Navalnaïa on her X account (ex-Twitter).
Shortly after this message, the account was suspended for user policy violations before being reactivated less than an hour later.
In a video released on Monday, Ms Navalnaïa vowed to succeed her husband and continue his fight.
On Monday she attended a meeting of EU foreign ministers where she called on the 27 not to recognize the result of Russia's presidential election in mid-March, which was supposed to lead to a new mandate for Mr Putin, in the absence of such resistance and against a backdrop of merciless Oppression.
400 arrests
In Russia, modest attempts to pay tribute to the enemy have been suppressed amid repression and an intimidation campaign against any criticism since the attack on Ukraine began in February 2022.
According to the specialized NGO OVD-Info, almost 400 people were arrested by police in almost forty Russian cities for wanting to pay tribute to the enemy, particularly by laying flowers or lighting candles.
The Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday that these arrests were justified. “Law enforcement agencies act within the framework of the law,” said Dmitry Peskov.
In addition, Mr. Peskov described Mr. Putin's promotion of senior officials in Russia's prison authorities as routine on Monday, three days after his opponent's death.
“These are normal ascension processes,” he commented.
Alexei Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence for “extremism” in a camp in the Russian Arctic, died in custody on February 16, according to prison authorities.
After miraculously surviving poisoning in August 2020 and subsequently being treated in Germany, the activist, who became popular for his investigations into the corruption of Russian power, decided to return to Russia in January 2021.
He was immediately arrested and gradually sentenced to increasingly harsher sentences, under increasingly difficult prison conditions, often in the cold of an isolation cell.
“gang leader”
The Western world strongly condemned his death and blamed the Kremlin's master for it. Vladimir Putin has not yet commented on the issue, although he has been informed about it.
Ilia Iachine, a longtime opponent and friend of Alexei Navalny who is jailed in Russia for denouncing the attack on Ukraine, vowed to continue his fight.
In a letter released Tuesday by people close to him, Mr. Iachine also said he was “convinced” that the Kremlin’s master had “ordered” the enemy to be killed for a quarter of a century.
“As Putin sees it, this is how power asserts itself: with murder, cruelty and revealing revenge. This thought is not that of a statesman. It’s that of a gang leader,” castigated Ilia Iachine.