Russian authorities told Alexei Navalny’s mother her son would be buried in the Arctic penal colony where he died unless she agreed within three hours to a secret funeral, Navalny’s spokesperson has said.
Kira Yarmysh tweeted on Friday: “An investigator called Alexei’s mother an hour ago and gave her an ultimatum. Either she agrees to a secret funeral without a public farewell within three hours, or Alexei will be buried in the colony.”
Yarmysh said Lyudmila Navalnaya refused to negotiate with the investigators because “they have no authority to decide how and where to bury her son”.
“She demands that they comply with the law, which obliges investigators to hand over the body within two days of determining the causes of death,” Yarmysh wrote.
On Thursday, Navalnaya said she had been shown the body of her son but that the authorities were “blackmailing” her into burying him in a secret ceremony without mourners.
Navalnaya said the investigators had threatened to let her son’s body rot unless he was buried in secret. She said one investigator had told her: “Time’s not on your side. Corpses decompose.”
Navalnaya was made to sign a death certificate saying her son died of natural causes.
Last Friday, Russia’s prison authorities reported that Navalny felt unwell after a walk and soon became unconscious at the prison in the town of Kharp. An ambulance arrived but he could not be revived, the service claimed.
Navalny’s team and his widow, Yulia, said he was killed by Russian authorities. The Kremlin denies all involvement in Navalny’s death. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Thursday described the west’s reaction to the death as “hysteria”.
The Kremlin appears to be going to great lengths to prevent Navalny’s funeral from turning into a public display of support for the opposition leader before the country’s presidential elections next month.
Several prominent Russian anti-war artists and public figures have recorded videos calling on Vladimir Putin to return Navalny’s body to his family. Among them are the Russian rock musician Andrei Makarevich and the Nobel peace prize winner Dmitry Muratov.
The Belarusian Nobel literature prize winner Svetlana Alexievich posted: “I want to appeal not only to the Kremlin. I want to ask all people, all of us – keep on saying and saying that they must give back the body to his mother.”
More than 80,000 people have signed a petition to Russia’s investigative committee asking for Navalny’s body to be handed to his family.
Russian officials and state media meanwhile have embarked on a campaign to discredit Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the late politician.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and now the deputy head of Putin’s security council, told Russian journalists on Thursday: “Look at the smiling, happy face of Navalny’s widow. You get the feeling that she was waiting for this event all these years in order to unfold her political life.”
Navalnaya dismissed Medvedev’s comments on X, calling him a “nobody”.
Pro-Russian Telegram channels shared a fake audio message that claimed to be a statement from Navalny’s mother accusing Navalnaya of unseemly behaviour since his death.
Navalnaya and her daughter Dasha met Joe Biden on Thursday. The US president called Navalny “a man of incredible courage” and said he held Putin responsible for his death.
