Russian authorities are threatening to bury Alexei Navalny on the grounds of the arctic prison colony where he died unless his family agrees to a closed funeral, the opposition leader’s team said on Friday, while his wife said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally ordered that his body not be handed over to his family.
The 47-year-old Kremlin critic died last week after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters.
Several leading Russian cultural figures and activists have called on authorities to release the body to his mother, who arrived at the prison colony in northern Siberia on Saturday last week.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“An hour ago, an investigator called Alexei’s mother and gave her an ultimatum,” Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh wrote on X. “She has three hours to agree to a secret funeral without a public farewell, or Alexei will be buried in the colony.”
His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, “refused to negotiate ... because they have no authority to decide how and where to bury her son,” Yarmysh added.
She has filed a lawsuit alleging the “desecration” of his body, said Ivan Zhdanov, an exiled ally of the late leader.
“You tortured him alive, now you torture him while he is dead,” Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue her husband’s work, said in a new video.
“I completely understand that this has not been curated by some investigator in Salekhard. Putin is directing it all,” she said.
“It’s Putin saying: ‘Put pressure on the mother, break her, tell her the body of her son is rotting,’” she said.
She said Navalny’s mother, who traveled to the remote prison colony where he died, is being “tormented” by authorities.
“This is the same Putin that likes to show that he is a practicing Christian,” she said.
Navalny’s team have said the Kremlin is “scared” of the opposition leader even after his death.
They believe the authorities do not want a public funeral as it would represent a show of support for Navalny’s movement against Putin.
They previously called Putin a “killer” who was trying to cover his tracks by not allowing independent forensic analysis of Navalny’s body.
The US Department of State on Friday announced it was imposing sanctions against three Russian officials over Navalny’s death in prison.
Those named include Valery Boyarinev, deputy director of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service which oversaw the remote arctic penal colony where Navalny died.
“You can expect more ... with respect to holding the Kremlin accountable for Mr Navalny’s death,” US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told journalists.
On Wednesday, the UK announced sanctions against six Russian officials at the IK-3 Arctic Penal Colony “Polar Wolf,” where Navalny died.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
‘EAST SHIELD’: State-run Belma said it would produce up to 6 million mines to lay along Poland’s 800km eastern border, and sell excess to nations bordering Russia and Belarus Poland has decided to start producing anti-personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War, and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and might export them to Ukraine, the deputy defense minister said. Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia. “We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible,” Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Zalewski said. The mines would be part
Cozy knits, sparkly bobbles and Santa hats were all the canine rage on Sunday, as hundreds of sausage dogs and their owners converged on central London for an annual parade and get-together. The dachshunds’ gathering in London’s Hyde Park came after a previous “Sausage Walk” planned for Halloween had to be postponed, because it had become so popular organizers needed to apply for an events licence. “It was going to be too much fun so they canceled it,” laughed Nicky Bailey, the owner of three sausage dogs: Una and her two 19-week-old puppies Ember and Finnegan, wearing matching red coats and silver
RSS