Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s body finally handed over to his mother

The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has finally been handed over to his mother, his spokeswoman has said.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, has been given the body of her son, Mr Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Saturday, more than a week after he died in an Arctic prison on 16 February.

A number of Western leaders have accused Vladimir Putin and Russian authorities of killing Mr Navalny, the Russian president’s most prominent critic, although these accusations have been strongly denied by the Kremlin.

It comes after Mr Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, earlier on Saturday accused Putin of mocking Christianity by trying to force his mother to agree to a secret funeral. Lyudmila said on Thursday that Russian officials were seeking to “blackmail” her, telling her they would “do something” to her son’s body if she did not agree to bury him in a secret ceremony without mourners.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Ms Yarmysh said on Saturday: “Alexey’s body was handed over to his mother. Many thanks to all those who demanded this with us.

“Lyudmila Ivanovna is still in Salekhard. The funeral is still pending. We do not know if the authorities will interfere to carry it out as the family wants and as Alexey deserves. We will inform you as soon as there is news.”

Yulia previously said she believes her husband was poisoned and that Russian authorities were keeping hold of the body to let traces of the nerve agent novichok leave his system. “My husband was unbreakable. And that’s precisely why Putin killed him,” she said earlier this week.

Mr Navalny was moved to the remote “Polar Wolf” Arctic prison late last year, facing multiple sentences on charges that the international community and his supporters believe were trumped up in an attempt to silence him.

The Russian opposition leader’s death came a month before a presidential election where Mr Putin is expected to easily claim re-election, a vote that Mr Navalny repeatedly railed against, even in prison.

In a video released earlier on Saturday, Yulia had demanded the release of her husband’s body, saying Lyudmila is being "literally tortured" by Russian authorities who had threatened to bury Navalny in the Arctic prison. "Give us the body of my husband," she said. "You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead."

Saturday marks nine days since the opposition leader's death, a day when Orthodox Christians hold a memorial service. People across Russia came out to mark the occasion and honor Navalny's memory by gathering at Orthodox churches, leaving flowers at public monuments or holding one-person protests.

Authorities have detained scores of people as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy for Putin's fiercest foe. As of early Saturday afternoon, at least 27 had been detained in nine Russian cities for showing support for Navalny, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected allegations that Putin was involved in Navalny's death, calling them "absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state."

The opposition leader’s team said on X/Twitter on Thursday that Navalny’s death certificate says he died of natural causes, while they accuse the Russian state of murdering him. Russian authorities said in announcing the death last week that the 47-year-old politician fell unconscious and died suddenly while out for a walk, while serving his latest near two-decades-long prison sentence.

Mr Navalny had been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after receiving life-saving treatment in Germany from novichok poisoning, an attack he blamed on the Kremlin.

Western leaders have lined up to condemn the Kremlin over the killing of Navalny. Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, used a meeting at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro to confront his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and say to his face that Russia murdered the opposition leader. Lord Cameron said Mr Lavrov refused to meet his gaze and instead looked at his phone.

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