The victim’s mother says she could see her son’s body

Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalny, has accused Russian authorities of “blackmailing” her son into “secretly” burying her remains.

This Thursday, in a video published on YouTube on February 22, the mother of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny revealed that she was able to see her son’s body, after being prevented from doing so for several days. She accused Russian authorities of “blackmailing” them into burying Navalny’s remains “in secret”.

“They are blackmailing me, (…) they want everything to be done secretly, without ceremony, they want to take me to the outskirts of the cemetery, to the fresh grave, and tell me ‘here is your son. ‘, I don’t agree with that,” said Lyudmila Navalny, in a video released Thursday by the opposition’s team.

“Medical documents ready”

After surviving the poisoning in August 2020, receiving treatment in Germany, Alexei Navalny, who became popular due to his investigations into the corruption of Russian power, chose to return to Russia in January 2021.

Under increasingly difficult conditions of detention, he was immediately arrested and given successively more severe sentences, and was often locked up in the cold of a solitary cell. According to the Russian prison administration, Navalny died on February 16 in Penal Colony No. 3 in the city of Kharp, a high-security prison where he had been detained since late 2023 and was “serving a 19-year sentence for extremism.”

Lyudmila Navalnya said Thursday that she was taken to the morgue and was able to see her son’s remains. She also says she is in Salekhard, the capital of Yamalo-Nenetsiya district, a region in the Far North where Alexei Navalny officially died in detention on February 16. According to his mother, investigators have already established the cause of death, “and all the legal and medical documents are ready.”

threats”

According to the opposition’s team, the cause of death is listed as “natural”. “Legally, they should have returned Alexei’s body to me immediately, but they didn’t. Instead, they are blackmailing me,” criticized the protesting mother.

“I am recording this video because they started threatening me. Looking into my eyes, they say that if I refuse a secret funeral, they will do something with his body. Investigator (…) m “He openly Said ‘time is against you, corpses rot,” she said.

“I want for you, for whom Alexei was a dear person, for whom his death was a personal tragedy, to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him,” continued the protestant’s mother.

Navalny’s team accuses the Kremlin of his murder

Since Saturday, Lyudmila Navalny has demanded access to his body, investigators have confirmed that an “expert” is needed. She also turned to President Vladimir Putin to win her case.

The team of Vladimir Putin’s main rival, who died after three years in prison under increasingly difficult conditions, accuses the Kremlin of murdering Alexei Navalny and trying to cover his tracks.