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Lyudmila Navalnaya (r.) leaves the Investigative Committee building in the Yamal-Nenets region in Salekhard
Photo: AP/dpa
The mother of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, addressed Russia's leader Vladimir Putin via video message and urged that the body be returned. She is standing in front of the “Polarwolf” penal camp and has been waiting for the fifth day to be able to see her son, said Lyudmila Navalnaya in the video message published on Tuesday. He died there on February 16th.
»I turn to you, Vladimir Putin. The decision of the question depends only on you. “Let me finally see my son,” she said. "I demand that Alexei's body be returned immediately so that I can bury him humanely," she said. She has not yet received the body nor has she been told where the body will be kept.
According to Navalny's team, investigators had previously said that the body would be kept under lock and key for another 14 days pending investigation. The reason given was "chemical tests" that were to be carried out on the dead, Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch wrote on Monday on X, formerly Twitter. "I'll say it again: Navalny's body is being hidden to cover up the traces of the murder," Yarmysch wrote in another tweet. This 14-day “chemical analysis” is a complete lie and mockery. She expects that the authorities will not hand over Navalny's body even after the 14 days have passed.
According to Russian authorities, the 47-year-old Navalny collapsed in freezing temperatures while walking in his Siberian prison camp on Friday. According to the prison service, attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.
Navalny's wife Julija Navalnaya explicitly blames Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for the killing. The prominent opposition politician's employees also assume that Navalny was deliberately killed. US President Joe Biden and other Western politicians also see the Kremlin behind Navalny's death. Putin's critics have been repeatedly murdered in Russia in recent years.
czl/dpa