Mother was allowed to see Navalny's body - it was not handed over

The 47-year-old died in the prison camp on Friday last week. Since then, the mother had been looking for the body in the Arctic Circle region. In the video, the mother again demanded that the body be handed over to her so that she could bury it. She accused the power apparatus of wanting to secretly place Navalny’s body underground.

“They are setting conditions as to where, when and how I should bury Alexei. That is against the law,” she said. The investigators threatened to do something with the body if she did not agree to a secret burial. That’s why she turned to the public because relatives, but also supporters, should have the opportunity to say goodbye to Navalny.

Navalny’s mother also said that she had been informed of the completion of the medical examination, including the cause of death. But she didn’t name them. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch wrote on the online platform X (formerly Twitter) shortly after the mother’s video was published that medical expertise had allegedly determined a natural death. In contrast, Navalny’s wife Yulia, his team and human rights activists accuse Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin of having the opposition figure, who barely survived a poison attack in 2020, murdered.

Mourning for the opposition leader in Russia.
Bild: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA (AFP)

Navalny’s mother said she spent 24 hours alone with investigators and detectives. On Wednesday evening she was admitted to the morgue in the city of Salekhard in northern Russia. Lyudmila Navalnaya did not comment on the condition of her son’s body.

According to authorities, Navalny died on February 16 under unclear circumstances in the penal camp with the unofficial name “Arctic Wolf” in the Siberian Arctic region of Yamal. The politician, weakened by the poison attack and repeated solitary confinement in the camp, is said to have collapsed during a tour of the icy prison yard and died despite attempts to resuscitate him.