Where is Alexei Navalny's body? Relatives of the Russian opponent requested on Saturday February 17 that his remains be handed over to them "immediately", the authorities remaining silent on his death, except to reject the accusations of the West, which is judging President Vladimir Putin responsible for this death.

“An employee of the colony (penitentiary) declared that the body of Alexei Navalny was in Salekhard”, a town in the region where his prison was located, and had been taken by “investigators” for analysis, the door said -speaker of the opponent, Kira Iarmich.

“We demand that the body of Alexei Navalny be immediately handed over to his family,” she added. 

“Alexeï Navalny was killed”, according to his spokesperson

The spokesperson indicated in an online video that the opponent's mother, Lyoudmila Navalnaïa, had gone on Saturday, with a lawyer, to the IK-3 penal colony in the Arctic region of Yamal and that a " official document" had been given to him confirming the death. 

“Alexei Navalny was killed,” said Kira Iarmich, who went into exile, like a crowd of opponents, to escape prison. "His death occurred on February 16 at 2:17 p.m. local time (9:17 a.m. GMT), according to the official document given to Alexei's mother," she added.

According to her, the deceased's mother and the lawyer arrived at the prison at 11:00 a.m. Saturday (0600 GMT), but had to wait two hours before being received.

A lawyer for the opponent, who went to see the investigators, "was informed that 'the cause of Alexei's death has not been determined, that a new histological examination was carried out'", he also wrote Kira Iarmich on

Also read: Alexeï Navalny: what we know about the death in prison of the Russian opponent

Not a word from Vladimir Putin

Russian prison authorities announced Friday, in a terse press release, that the famous activist, imprisoned for three years, had died in the penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence.

The 47-year-old man, whose health was weakened by poisoning and his imprisonment, would have “felt bad after a walk” and would have “lost consciousness”, they explained. They assured that everything had been done to resuscitate him and that the causes of death were “in the process of being established”.

No details have filtered since, and Vladimir Putin has not said a word about the disappearance of this major political personality, a death which also comes one month before the presidential election of March 15-17 which will see the master of Kremlin renews, in the absence of any opposition, which has been decimated by repression, particularly since the start of the Russian assault against Ukraine two years ago.

Western countries, for their part, denounced with one voice the “responsibility” of the Russian regime.

American President Joe Biden, “scandalized”, accused his Russian counterpart of being “responsible”. A message hammered home by all Western leaders.

So many accusations that the Kremlin judged on Friday “absolutely unacceptable”. But Vladimir Putin remains silent, although he has been informed.

Read alsoThe death of Alexeï Navalny arouses indignation in the West, the UN calls for a “credible” investigation

"Do not abandon"

An ally of the Kremlin, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the other hand, did not wish to comment on this “internal Russian affair”.

If the Russian authorities are silent on the circumstances of the death of the opponent and the state media barely mention his death, they have however warned the population against any demonstration.

Despite arrests, like Friday evening, Russians marched in small numbers on Saturday in several cities to lay flowers, particularly on monuments in memory of dissidents who were victims of political repression during the Soviet era.

In total, at least 212 people were arrested during rallies in more than a dozen cities, the specialized NGO OVD-Info announced on Saturday.

At midday on Saturday, around fifteen Muscovites were arrested by the police during a gathering at the foot of a monument to the memory of Soviet repression, reported the independent Russian media Sota.

Russian state agencies did not cover these rallies, only reporting some of the official reactions to the death of Alexei Navalny.

From Europe to the United States, hundreds of people also gathered on Friday evening to pay tribute to the political opponent, as in Warsaw where demonstrators, mostly young and many upset, chanted "Putin, assassin".

01:59

With AFP

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