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.
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