Russian Figures Demand Return Of Navalny's Body

A woman pays tribute to Alexei Navalny at the monument, a large boulder from the Solovetsky islands, where the first camp of the Gulag political prison system was established in St. Petersburg, Russia

Russians, including prominent figures like Nobel Prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov and ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov, have released videos urging Russian authorities to return the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his family. This plea comes a week after Navalny's death in an Arctic penal colony.

Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, has resisted pressure to agree to a secret burial away from the public eye. She stated that she was allowed to see her son's body in a city morgue and demanded its return to her. Navalnaya accused authorities of trying to force her into agreeing to a secret burial, which she vehemently opposes.