The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother, a senior aide to Navalny said on his social media account on Saturday.
Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, made the announcement on his Telegram account and thanked “everyone” who had called on Russian authorities to return Navalny’s body to his mother.
Earlier on Saturday, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, accused President Vladimir Putin of mocking Christianity by trying to force her mother to agree to a secret funeral after her death in an Arctic penal colony.
“Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone who wrote and recorded video messages. You all did what you had to do. Thank you. Alexei Navalny’s body was handed over to his mother,” Zhdanov wrote.
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician, died suddenly on February 16 in an Arctic penal colony and his family has been fighting for more than a week to have his body returned to them . Prominent Russians released videos calling on authorities to release the body and Western countries imposed more sanctions on Russia as punishment for Navalny’s death as well as the second anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine.
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, is still in Salekhard, Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, said on X, formerly Twitter. Lyudmila Navalnaya has been in the Arctic region for more than a week and is demanding that Russian authorities return her son’s body.
“The funeral is still pending,” Yarmysh tweeted, questioning whether authorities would allow it to take place “as the family wishes and as Alexei deserves.”
Earlier on Saturday, Navalny’s widow said in a video that Navalny’s mother was being “literally tortured” by authorities who had threatened to bury Navalny in the Arctic prison. They, she said, suggested to her mother that she did not have much time to make a decision because the body was decomposing, Navalnaya said.
“Give us my husband’s body,” Navalnaya said earlier Saturday. “You tortured him alive, and now you continue to torture him dead. You make fun of the remains of the dead.
Authorities have arrested scores of people as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy for Putin’s fiercest foe ahead of the presidential election he is almost certain to win. Russians on social media say authorities do not want to return Navalny’s body to his family because they fear a public show of support for him.
Navalnaya accused Putin, an Orthodox Christian, of killing Navalny.
“No true Christian will ever be able to do what Putin is doing now with Alexei’s body,” she said, asking: “What will you do with his corpse?” How low will you go to make fun of the man you murdered?
Saturday marked nine days since the death of the opposition leader, the day Orthodox Christians hold a memorial service.
People from across Russia came to mark the occasion and honor Navalny’s memory by gathering at Orthodox churches, laying flowers at public monuments or organizing individual protests.
Muscovites lined up outside the city’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior to pay their respects, according to photos and videos published by independent Russian media outlet SOTAvision. The video also shows Russian police officers stationed nearby and officers stopping several people for an identity check.
As of Saturday evening, at least 38 people had been arrested in Russia for showing support for Navalny, according to the rights group OVD-Info which tracks political arrests.
Among them were Elena Osipova, a 78-year-old artist from St. Petersburg, who stood on a street with a poster showing Navalny with angel wings, and Sergei Karabatov, 64, who visited a Moscow monument dedicated to victims of political repression with flowers and a note saying “Don’t think this is the end.”
Aida Nouriyeva, from the town of Ufa near the Ural Mountains, was also arrested. She publicly held up a sign saying: “Putin is Navalny’s murderer!” I demand the body be returned!
Putin is often depicted in church, plunging himself into ice water to celebrate Epiphany and visiting holy sites in Russia. He promoted what he called “traditional values” without which, he once said, “society deteriorates.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected allegations that Putin was involved in Navalny’s death, calling them “absolutely unfounded and insolent accusations against the Russian head of state.”
Musician Nadya Tolokonnikova, who became widely known after spending nearly two years in prison for participating in a 2012 protest with her band Pussy Riot inside Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, was one of many Russian personalities to have published a video in which she accused Putin of hypocrisy and asked him to release Navalny’s body.
“We were imprisoned for allegedly trampling on traditional values. But no one tramples on traditional Russian values more than you, Putin, your officials and your priests who pray for all the murders you commit, year after year, day after day,” said Tolokonnikova, who lives abroad. “Putin, have a conscience, give his mother his son’s body.”
Lyudmila Navalnaya said Thursday that investigators had allowed her to view her son’s body at the morgue in the Arctic city of Salekhard. She had filed a complaint with the Salekhard court challenging the authorities’ refusal to hand over the body. A closed hearing was scheduled for March 4.
Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson, said Lyudmila Navalnaya had received a medical certificate stating that her son had died of “natural causes.”
