- Alexei Navalny died suddenly on February 16th at the age of 47 in a penal colony in the Arctic.
- His publicist wrote to X on Saturday that his body had been returned to his mother.
- It remains unclear whether a public funeral will take place for one of President Putin's most vocal opponents.
Alexei Navalny's body was returned to his mother days later after his family claimed they were denied access to it and were pressured by Russian authorities to hold a secret funeral.
“Alexei's body has been handed over to his mother. We thank all those who requested this from us,” Kira Yarmysh, Mr Navalny's press secretary, said in a statement to the political dissident. wrote X a week after his sudden death at the age of 47 in a penal colony in the Arctic Circle. .
“The funeral is still pending. We do not know if the authorities will step in to give Alexei the funeral he deserved, as per his family's wishes. We will update you as soon as we hear any news,” she wrote.
Questions remain about the nature of Navalny's death and whether a public procession can be held for him, who was Russian President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic.
Navalny's spokesman, Yarmysh, said on the X program that his family had been shown a medical report that said Navalny died of natural causes.
His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said in a YouTube video posted earlier this week that she was initially denied access to her son's body and that Russian authorities threatened her if she did not agree to conditions governing when and how he would be buried. he accused.
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, also posted a six-minute video on her late husband's YouTube channel in which she accused Putin of “torturing” Navalny's body and objected to the Russian leader's professed Christian faith. accused of chanting.
“We already knew that Putin's faith was false, but now we see it more clearly than ever,” she said in the video.
A public funeral for a fierce Kremlin opponent could be disruptive and potentially detrimental to President Putin.
After Navalny's death was announced, people laid flowers in cities across Russia. But videos on Russian social media showed unidentified people removing donations overnight as authorities looked on, CBS News reported.
Russian monitoring group OVD-Info announced on February 17 that more than 400 people had been detained after leaving memorials to Navalny.
Yarmysh said on Friday that Navalny's mother had been given an ultimatum to hold a secret funeral. buried in the prison colony.
A spokesperson's update on the return of Navalny's body did not say whether the family had agreed to any terms.
“We just want to hold a funeral and bury him in a humane manner according to Orthodox customs,” Navalny's wife said.
