The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny vowed on Monday to continue her fight against the Kremlin, while authorities denied his mother access to the morgue where his body is believed to be kept following his death on last week in an Arctic penal colony.
Her voice breaking at times in a video posted on social media, Yulia Navalnaya accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband in the remote prison and said officials’ refusal to hand over the body to her mother-in-law was part of a coverage.
Russian authorities have said the cause of Navalny’s death on Friday at age 47 is still unknown – and that the results of any investigation will likely be questioned abroad. Many Western leaders have already said they hold Putin responsible for the death.
Navalny’s death has deprived the Russian opposition of its best-known and most inspiring politician less than a month before elections that are sure to give Putin another six years in power. It dealt a devastating blow to many Russians, who saw in Navalny a rare hope for political change amid Putin’s relentless crackdown on the opposition.
Navalny had been in prison since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. He has received three prison sentences since his arrest, on a series of charges which he has rejected as politically motivated.
“They cowardly and meanly hide his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lie miserably while waiting for traces of” the poison to disappear, Navalnaya said, suggesting that her husband may have been killed with a Novichok-style nerve agent.
She urged Russians to rally behind her “to share not only the pain and endless pain that has enveloped and gripped us, but also my anger.”
He continued: “The main thing we can do for Alexei and for ourselves is to keep fighting. … We must all unite with one strong fist and strike that crazy regime.”
On Monday, Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said Navalny’s body will not be handed over to his mother for 14 days while a chemical examination takes place, according to a Russian investigator.
Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said the Investigative Committee, the country’s main criminal investigative agency, informed Lyudmila Navalnaya that the official investigation into the death had been extended. “They lie, they make time for themselves and they don’t even hide it,” Yarmysh wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Since authorities offered no further information about the death after the brief initial statement, many Russians speculated what might have happened to Navalny. Independent Russian media released reports attempting to shed light on his death. Some questioned the official narrative, but their reports could not be verified.
In Brussels on Monday, Navalny’s widow met with European Union foreign ministers and other officials. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was mulling sanctions against Russia and also called for an independent international investigation into the causes of Navalny’s death.
He said responsibility for Navalny’s death lies with “Putin himself, but we can go down to the institutional structure of the prison system in Russia,” to impose asset freezes and travel bans.
President Joe Biden said Monday that his administration is also considering imposing additional sanctions on Russia.
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski described Navalnaya as “very dignified, very composed” and urged his EU counterparts to act on Navalnaya’s demand that the bloc impose sanctions on more Putin supporters, as well as oligarchs and other senior Russian officials already targeted.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized the Western leaders’ accusations as “crude” and “inadmissible”.
“These statements cannot harm the head of our state, but they certainly do not suit those who make them,” Peskov said in a conversation with journalists.
Yarmysh said Navalny’s 69-year-old mother and his lawyers were not allowed into the morgue in Salekhard, the capital of the Arctic Yamalo-Nenets region, on Monday morning. Staff did not respond when they asked if the body was there, Yarmysh said.
Asked when Navalny’s body could be handed over to his family, Peskov said the Kremlin was not involved in that process, adding that the official investigation was continuing in line with the law.
Observers said the law allows authorities to hold the body for a long period if investigations are ongoing and to block any requests for an independent forensic study.
Navalny’s ally Ivan Zhdanov denounced Russian authorities as “lackeys and liars.”
“It is clear what they are doing now: covering the tracks of their crime,” he wrote on Monday.
Since Navalny’s death, nearly 400 people have been arrested by police in Russia as they went to memorials and monuments to victims of political repression with flowers and candles to pay their respects to Navalny, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors politics. arrests. The US and British ambassadors also mourned Navalny’s death at a memorial in Moscow.
Authorities cordoned off some of the memorials across the country and removed the flowers at night, but they continued to appear.
Over 50,000 people have petitioned the Russian government for Navalny’s remains to be handed over to his relatives, OVD-Info reported.
Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said Navalny felt ill after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness in the penal colony where he was being held. An ambulance arrived, but he could not be revived, the service said.
After the latest verdict that gave him a 19-year sentence, Navalny said he understood that he was “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of the life of this regime.” .
In her video statement, Navalnaya said: “By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul.”
“But I still have the other half, and it tells me I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny, ”she declared.