Alexei Navalny’s mother urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “immediately” release her son’s body in her first comments since his death in an Arctic prison.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, echoed the call and reiterated the accusations against Putin for Navalny’s death, shortly before her account on the social network X, the old Twitter, was suspended.
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, traveled to the remote IK-3 prison colony on Saturday, the morning after his death was announced, and has since been banned from seeing his body.
“I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, the solution to the matter depends only on you,” he said in a video published by his team.
“Let me finally see my son. “I demand that Alexei’s body be released immediately so that he can be buried humanely.”
He was dressed in black and stood near the penal colony – one of the harshest in Russia – where he spent his last weeks.
“For the fifth day I can’t see him, they don’t give me his body and they don’t even tell me where he is.”
Navalny’s allies have said the mother has been banned from morgues and was told by investigators on Monday that her body could remain for “at least two weeks.”
Navalny’s team also published a letter written by Lyudmila Navalnaya – who is not a public figure – to Putin with the demand.
The Kremlin has refused to say when the body will be released and Putin has remained silent about the death of his main political opponent.
His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday described as “baseless and vulgar” Yulia Navalnaya’s statements in which she claimed that Putin had killed her husband.
“I don’t give a damn if my words are commented on by the press secretary of a murderer,” Navanaya replied on social media.
“Return Alexei’s body and let us bury him with dignity, don’t stop people from saying goodbye to him,” Navalnaya said.
Russia detained hundreds of mourners in the days after Navalny’s death.
Demonstrative revenge
Navalnaya announced Monday that she will continue her husband’s fight against the Kremlin, in a momentous turn for the Russian opposition. She also met with the foreign ministers of the European Union.
His team said Tuesday that it had asked the bloc not to recognize the upcoming Russian presidential election, in which Putin will likely extend his term until at least 2030.
“Do not recognize these elections,” Navalnaya said, according to comments posted by her team on social media.
“A president who killed his main political opponent cannot be legitimate by definition,” he added.
He also asked the bloc to “always see a difference between Putin and Russia.”
“People fleeing war and dictatorship are not their enemies,” he said, calling on the bloc to “help” Russians fleeing their country.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled the country after Putin sent troops to Ukraine.
The West has accused the Kremlin of being behind Navalny’s death, which came three years after his imprisonment.
Navalny’s death has shocked liberal Russians.
His imprisoned friend Ilya Yashin, who is serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence for denouncing the offensive against Ukraine, indicated in a message from prison on Tuesday that he had “no doubt” that Navalny had been murdered.
“I am sure that he (Putin) ordered the murder,” he said in a message through his lawyers on social media, calling it “demonstrative revenge.”
Yashin, a key figure in the Russian opposition who was not part of Navalny’s team but was friendly with him, was convicted last year.
Unlike most of Putin’s critics, he chose to stay in Russia after Moscow launched its offensive against Ukraine, inspired in part by Navalny’s defiant return to the country.
#Alexei #Navalnys #mother #demands #Putin #hand #body #Diario #Página
