The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is demanding that his body be released immediately and returned to the family after they were told Russian officials would hold him for at least two weeks, allegedly while his cause of death in prison is investigated.
In a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Let me finally see my son. Hand over Alexei’s body so I can give him a proper burial,” Navalnaya said in Russian.
Russian officials announced Friday that Navalny, 47, died in the country’s highest-security prison near the Arctic Circle.
An aide for Navalny said Monday that his mother and lawyers were notified by investigators that they would not give them the body.
“The body will be under some sort of ‘chemical examination’ for another 14 days,” Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said.
Officials said Navalny felt unwell after taking a walk and lost consciousness. They said an ambulance and its crew attempted to rehabilitate him but efforts were unsuccessful.
Navalny rose to prominence for his campaign against corruption and Putin. The director of his Anti-Corruption Foundation said that Russian officials told them that he had died from “sudden death syndrome,” a general term used to describe various cardiac syndromes that can prompt cardiac arrest.
Lyudmila said she has not been able to see her son and does not know where his body is. She visited the penal colony where he died on Saturday and received a death note that said his time of death was 2:17 p.m. local time Friday.
U.S. officials, including President Biden, have directly blamed Putin for the death.
“Putin is responsible. What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled,” Biden said Friday.