The family of Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, has demanded his body be handed over to them after it went missing from the morgue where it was reportedly being held.
His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, traveled with his lawyer to Salekhard, a city near the Arctic penal colony where the Russian opposition leader was imprisoned and where he died on Friday.
Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh confirmed his death yesterday, citing an official document given to his mother that said he died at 2:17 pm local time on Friday. The circumstances of Navalny’s death remain unclear. Prison officials claim the 47-year-old ‘fell ill’ after a walk and ‘lost consciousness’ before dying.
Ms. Yarmysh said an employee at the prison colony told them that Mr. Navalny’s body had been taken to a mortuary in Salekhard. But Ms Yarmysh said the mortuary was closed when his mother and lawyer visited the mortuary. When the lawyer called the morgue, they were told that Mr Navalny’s body was not there.
Alexei Navalny’s family has demanded that his body be handed over to them after it went missing from the morgue where it was reportedly being held. In the photo: Alexey Navalny who died on Friday
Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh confirmed his death yesterday, citing an official document given to his mother that said he died at 2:17 pm local time on Friday. In the photo: a man who wanted to lay flowers for Alexei Navalny, arrested by the police
“We demand that Alexei Navalny’s body be immediately handed over to his family,” Ms. Yarmysh wrote on completed.
In a BBC interview, she claimed that Mr Navalny had been murdered and his body was withheld so Russian authorities could cover up “traces”. But yesterday, Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said Navalny’s mother was told by prison officials that he died of “sudden death syndrome.”
Just hours after Mr. Navalny’s death, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, with whom he shares two children, bravely spoke out to condemn Putin and vowed that he and his accomplices would “account for” her husband’s death .
Ms Navalnaya, 47, told world leaders at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday evening: “They will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, my family and my husband.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the conference: ‘After the murder of Alexei Navalny, it is absurd to consider Putin as the supposedly legitimate head of the Russian state. He’s a criminal.’ US President Joe Biden called on the world to “make no mistake” about who is responsible for Navalny’s death.
Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron yesterday pledged that Britain will take action and urged other countries to follow suit.
He said: ‘I am sure we will take action.’
Just hours after Mr Navalny’s death, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya (pictured), with whom he shares two children, bravely spoke out to condemn Mr Putin, vowing that he and his cronies would ‘account for’ the deaths from her husband.
The Foreign Ministry said Friday it would summon a Russian embassy official to make clear that it holds Russian authorities “fully responsible.” The Kremlin has denied responsibility and said yesterday it was unacceptable for Britain to interfere in its internal affairs.
On the day of Navalny’s death, more than a hundred people were arrested in Russia as they laid flowers in his memory. Authorities removed the tributes overnight. More than 300 people have been detained in 32 Russian cities since last night during memorial events for Mr Navalny, rights group OVD-Info said.
Mr Navalny was targeted by Russian FSB agents with Novichok nerve agent during a flight to Moscow in 2020. He was rushed to a German hospital where medics saved his life, but was arrested when he returned to Russia in January 2021.
Since then, he has been held in the brutal penal colony, where he spent 308 days in solitary confinement. His sentence was recently increased to 19 years for ‘extremism’.