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Body Dead Kremlin Critic Navalny Given To Mother

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – After mounting pressure, Russian authorities handed over the body of Alexey Navalny, the Kremlin critic who died in prison last week, to his mother, the late political activist’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said Saturday.

Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and others had accused authorities of being reluctant to release his human remains, which they suggested could show signs he was tortured or even poisoned.

Moscow angrily rejected the charges, and prison officials said he died of “natural causes” at the age of 47.

Russian celebrities and church officials had publicly appealed to President Vladimir Putin to hand over Navalny’s body to his family. Additionally, more than 98,000 Russians signed a petition organized by the legal rights group OVD-Info, activists said.

Yet, with his body now handed over, Yarmysh cautioned that funeral arrangements were still to be determined, adding that it remained unclear whether the authorities would interfere.

Navalnaya, on Saturday was still in the northern city of Salekhard, near the Arctic prison where her son was reported to have died on February 16, Yarmysh explained.

She added that the opposition leader’s team would release information about the funeral “as it becomes available.”

‘BLACKMAILING MOTHER’

Navalny’s family and aides have accused the Russian authorities of keeping his body hostage and “blackmailing” his mother into agreeing to bury him in secret.

On Friday, Yarmysh said that officials in Salekhard had given Navalnaya an ultimatum demanding that she assent to such a secret funeral within three hours or else that he would be buried on prison grounds.

Navalny’s death came as a shock to Russia’s opposition, which now fears that Putin will stay longer in power than the late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

While Navalny had been criticized over his nationalistic, anti-migration, and far-right past, he later apologized for some rhetoric and became a voice for freedom in his nation, which angered the Kremlin.

Navalny, who led massive protests, survived an attempt to poison him in Siberia in 2020 with what Western laboratories said was a Russian-made nerve agent, Novichok.

He has been in prison since his surprise return to Russia following medical treatment in Germany in January 2021.

Navalny was serving sentences totaling more than 30 years on charges including fraud and extremist activity that he said were trumped up to silence him.

Till his last breath, Navalny remained hopeful that the Russian rulers would one day be removed: “I believe, I am confident, and I believe that they are not the masters of our country, and never will be.”