MOSCOW- A collaborator of Alexei Navalny said Friday that Russian authorities have given the mother of the late Russian opposition leader a deadline to forego a public funeral for her son or else he will be buried in prison facilities.
Investigators gave Lyudmila Navalnaya three hours to accept a proposal for a private funeral away from public view, Ivan Zhdanov, Navalny’s close aide, revealed on social media. This is a new twist in the almost week-long confrontation with the authorities to recover the politician’s body.
They demand the delivery of the opponent’s body
Navalnaya refuses to continue negotiations and demands that the authorities comply with the law and hand over the body within 48 hours of determining the cause of death, which takes place on Saturday, Zhdanov detailed. She also filed a complaint accusing authorities of desecrating the body, he added.
“She insists that the authorities allow funerals and memorial services to be held according to tradition,” Zhdanov said.
Alexei Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician, died unexpectedly on February 16 in an Arctic penal colony, prompting hundreds of Russians across the country to flock to makeshift memorial sites with flowers and candles. Russian authorities have detained dozens of people in their attempt to repress any major demonstration of sympathy for the president’s staunchest enemy. Vladimir Putin before the presidential elections that he will surely win.
Zhdanov announced on Friday a reward of 50,000 euros for “complete information” about how Navalny died.
Navalny’s mother and lawyers have been trying to recover his body since late last week, gaining support from prominent Russians.
Lyudmila Navalnaya said Thursday that investigators allowed her to see her son’s body in the morgue in the Arctic city of Salekhard. Navalny’s mother indicated that she reiterated her demand that her body be returned and she complained about what she described as strong pressure to accept a secret burial.
“They are blackmailing me. They are setting conditions on where, when and how my son should be buried,” he said Thursday in a video message. “They want me to do it secretly, without a mourning ceremony.”
Support for Navalni’s relatives
Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said in X that his mother was also shown a medical certificate indicating that the politician died of “natural causes.” Yarmysh did not specify what they were.
Prominent public figures, including Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov and ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov, have posted videos on social media calling on Russian authorities to return Navalny’s body to his family.
“Just give Lyudmila her son,” Muratov said, adding: “It is uncomfortable to talk about this in a country that still considers itself Christian.”
Nadya Tolokonnikova, who became widely famous after spending almost two years in prison for participating in a 2012 protest with the band Pussy Riot inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, also posted a video.
“We were imprisoned for allegedly trampling on traditional values. But no one tramples traditional Russian values more than you, Putin, your officials and your priests who pray for all the murders you commit, year after year, day after day,” Tolokonnikova said.
Ballet star Baryshnikov said he “strongly requests” the authorities to return “the body of the murdered Alexei Navalny to his mother.”
Across the ocean in San Francisco on Thursday, US President Joe Biden met with Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and their 20-year-old daughter, Dasha, to express “condolences for their devastating loss.”
“To state the obvious, he was a man of incredible courage,” Biden said after the meeting. “It’s amazing how his wife and his daughter are emulating that.”
Demand
Alexei Navalny’s mother filed a lawsuit in a court in Salekhard challenging officials’ refusal to hand over her son’s body. A closed-door hearing was scheduled for March 4. On Tuesday, she called on Putin to release the remains of her son so she could bury him with dignity.
In a video released Monday, Yulia Navalnaya accused Putin of killing her husband and alleged that his refusal to hand over his body was part of a cover-up.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the accusations and called them “insolent and absolutely unfounded accusations against the head of the Russian state.”
Source: AP
