Political allies of Alexei A. Navalny confirmed his death on Saturday, saying his mother Lyudmila Navalnaya received official notification of her son's death on Friday afternoon. The confirmation came as Russian authorities detained hundreds of people mourning his death.
Navalny's family is still waiting for authorities to release his body. Mr Navalny's press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, said in a statement on X that Russian investigators had transferred Mr Navalny's body from the Arctic penal colony to the town of Salekhard, where it was being examined.
“We demand that the body of Alexei Navalny be immediately released to his family,” Yarmysh said in a statement.
The detention of Navalny's mourners was a sign that the Kremlin wants to avoid turning his death into a political event. At least 340 people have been detained in 30 cities since Friday's death announcement, according to human rights group OVD Info, which tracks such arrests.
In Moscow, hundreds of Russians gathered at the Wall of Sorrow memorial commemorating victims of Russia's political repression. They encountered a heavy police presence. Overnight, Moscow city authorities removed piles of flowers left by people in memory of Navalny.
Mr. Yarmysh said in a video statement that Mr. Navalny's mother and one of his lawyers arrived at the penal colony in the Harup settlement on Saturday morning. They had to wait two hours before prison officials came out to tell them that Mr. Navalny's body had been transferred to Salekhard.
Ivan Zhdanov, chairman of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said in a post on X that he was told in the penal colony that Navalny had died of “sudden death syndrome.”
In Salekhard, the regional capital near the penal colony, Navalny's mother and lawyer discovered the local morgue had been closed. Yarmysh said officials called and were told Navalny's body was not there. He said another lawyer told him that “additional tissue tests” were being carried out to determine Navalny's cause of death, and that the results should be available next week.
“They are lying and making every effort not to hand over the bodies,” Yarmis said.
In a separate video address, Yarmysh accused Russian President Vladimir V. Putin of killing Navalny.
Referring to Navalny's nerve agent poisoning in 2020, Yarmysh said, “Three and a half years ago, President Putin tried to kill Alexei,'' and “Yesterday, Putin killed Alexei.'' Ta.
Yarmysh is a member of Navalny's alliance team. They operated from outside Russia and continued his activities even after his poisoning and subsequent imprisonment, issuing his statements and organizing political events.
Prison authorities said Navalny died after losing consciousness while taking a walk in the penal colony to which he was transferred in late December.
Prison authorities said in a statement about his death that the cause of death was “under investigation.” Local investigators said they had opened a “procedural investigation” into Navalny's death. They said: “A series of investigative and operational measures are being carried out aimed at clarifying all the circumstances of the incident.”
Russian lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov said this probably means forensic tests will be carried out on Navalny's body. Relatives can collect the body for burial only after the cause of death is officially determined, Smirnov said.
According to the Russian human rights organization Public Vadict, such medical examinations usually reveal only the most common causes of death.
“Such investigations can never be trusted,” the group said in a statement.
The organization said that once the body is recovered, relatives can bury it in a cemetery. Navalny's family has not commented on possible burial.
