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Ludmilla Navalnaya, the mother of the deceased, and lawyer Vasily Dubkov on the way to the investigative committee
Photo: Maxim Shemetov / REUTERS
It has been three days since Russian authorities reported the death of Alexei Navalny in his Siberian prison camp. Relatives and lawyers of the Kremlin critic immediately made their way to prison. But they have so far been denied access to Navalny's body, his spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch said on X.
Neither she nor Navalny's lawyers were allowed to enter the morgue, writes Yarmysch. A lawyer was literally pushed away by officers. Officials did not respond to questions about where the body was. The Investigative Committee further informed the mother and lawyers that the review of Navalny's death had been extended. It is not known how long it will last. The cause of death has therefore still “not been determined”.
“So far only a minimum of information about the Navalny case”
Navalny was considered the harshest critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and had been in prison for a good three years. According to Russian authorities, Navalny, who was physically weakened after many days in repeated solitary confinement, collapsed on Friday while walking in the courtyard of his Siberian prison camp in freezing temperatures. According to the prison service, attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.
In the summer of 2020, Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. He was flown to Germany and barely survived. Researchers from the investigative platforms Bellingcat and The Insider and SPIEGEL managed to identify a commando of the Russian domestic secret service FSB that allegedly carried out the attack. When he returned to Russia in January 2021, he was arrested at the airport in Moscow.
According to the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Russian authorities are keeping quiet about details of his death. “So far everyone only has a minimum of information about the Navalny case,” says the newspaper. Other pro-opposition media reported that more than 400 people were arrested at Navalny memorial rallies in 36 Russian cities.
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has meanwhile been invited to the European Foreign Ministers' deliberations in Brussels on Monday. As foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell reported on Sunday, the EU foreign ministers wanted to "send a strong signal of support for the freedom fighters in Russia" at their meeting and honor the memory of the 47-year-old Navalny. According to his spokeswoman, EU Council President Charles Michel also wants to receive Yulia Navalnaya.
Shortly after the news of her husband's death, Navalnaya appeared at the Munich Security Conference on Friday and gave a highly regarded speech calling for a fight against President Vladimir Putin's Russian power apparatus.
mrc/dpa