“Alexei’s mother was shown her son’s body, but they are not returning it. Instead, she is being blackmailed,” Jarmyšová describes what happened. “On orders from the Kremlin, the investigators set the conditions for where, when and how to bury Alexei. They want to do it secretly,” the spokeswoman added.
Lyudmila herself describes in the video that the Russian authorities told her that if she did not agree to a secret burial, “something will happen to the body”. According to her, the authorities want her they could only lead to a fresh grave on the edge of the cemetery and declare that her son lies there, but she does not agree with that and wants Navalny’s friends to have a chance to say goodbye to him. “I don’t want any special conditions, I just want everything to happen in accordance with the law,” she said. “I demand that my son’s body be handed over to me immediately,” she emphasized.
The investigator told her that time is not on her side and the body is subject to decay, Navalná added.
She also had the opportunity to look at the medical report, it states that the opposition died of natural causes.
Russian authorities have not yet responded to Navalny’s mother’s statement. Commentators assume that the Kremlin fears that ahead of the presidential elections, which will be held in mid-March, that the funeral, with the possible participation of tens of thousands of people, could turn into a demonstration against the Putin regime.
Alexei’s mother was shown her son’s body, but they are not giving it back. Instead, she is blackmailed. On orders from the Kremlin, investigators set conditions for where, when and how to bury Alexei. They want to do this secretly, without letting him say goodbye. https://t.co/9Q4dlMjy3F
— Kira Yarmysh (@Kira_Yarmysh) February 22, 2024
Navalny died suddenly in prison on Friday, according to Russian authorities. However, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding his death. Yuliya Navalna’s widow and associates of this opposition politician blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death. On Monday, according to Jarmyšová, the authorities informed the family and lawyers that they could hand over the body of the deceased in 14 days at the earliest, during which “chemical expertise” will be carried out.
“The Russians must (Navalna) return the son,” White House spokesman John Kirby said today.
According to Ivan Zhdanov, director of the Anti-Corruption Fund, which Navalny founded, Navalny’s mother wants to bury his son at the Khovansky Cemetery on the southwestern edge of Moscow. He wishes the pieta to be open to the public.
“I want those of you who cared about Alexei and for whom his death is a personal tragedy to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him,” said Navalna in the video. According to Zhdanov, there is no possibility that Navalny would be buried abroad. “Alexei did not return to Russia only to be sent away now,” Zhdanov said.
Lavrov: The West’s reaction was hysterical
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about Navalny’s death today. At the meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the G7 countries, he said that the reaction of Western countries was hysterical. The West has no right to interfere in Russian affairs, Lavrov said today according to Reuters.
“We reject an international investigation into his death,” Lavrov said. According to him, the West has no right to teach Russia lessons given how it has behaved in other cases, for example, regarding the activist Julian Assange, who in the US He faces many years in prison for publishing secret materials.
Navalny has been the main face of the Russian opposition for years and has been a vocal critic of Putin’s regime, including for corruption. The opposition leader blamed the Kremlin for having given the order to poison him at the time. Immediately after returning to his homeland from Germany, where he was cured of poisoning, Navalny was imprisoned. He was successively sentenced to 2.5 years, nine years and 19 years in prison for various charges. He denied guilt and attributed his imprisonment to the regime’s efforts to silence all opponents and criticism.
