Adding to the grief of the family of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his mother and his team were reportedly denied access to his body and told by investigators that the official investigation into his death would be extended and it was unclear for how long take will take.
“They cowardly and meanly hide his body and refuse to give it to his mother,” Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the harsh Kremlin critic, said in a video statement four days after Russian prison authorities announced his death in prison – which they said attributed to “sudden death syndrome.”
Navalnaya, who lives in exile outside Russia, accused Russian authorities of “pitifully lying while waiting for the trail of another Putin's Novichok to disappear,” referring to a poison allegedly used by Russian security services was used in at least one previous politically motivated assassination attempt.
Alexei Navalny's widow is calling on her supporters to stand by her in the fight against Putin. Click here to view related media.
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Navalnaya urged Russians to share “not only the grief and endless pain that has enveloped and gripped us, but also my anger,” and vowed to continue her husband's mission to expose Putin's alleged misdeeds and his long rule over Russia to end.
A spokeswoman for Navalny also accused Russian officials of lying and “playing for time” in a social media post as authorities continued to crack down on tributes to the late dissident.
People laid flowers in memory of Navalny at Moscow's Solovetsky Stone – a monument to victims of political repression.
People lay flowers for late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Solovetsky Stone, a monument to victims of political repression in Moscow, Russia, on February 19, 2024, after Navalny's death in an Arctic prison. ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty
But in Putin's Russia this repression is pervasive, and the honors were quickly swept away along with dozens of others across the country. Hundreds of people who dared to publicly honor Navalny since his death on Friday have been arrested.
“I think it highlights the deep sadness among the people who supported Navalny, a large portion of Russians,” Russia analyst Jeff Hawn told CBS News, adding that many of those people “think they have it now Hope lost because…” “In many ways, Navalny managed to bring together a broad coalition of people who wanted a normal, a more normal country in Russia.”
Navalny was last seen alive just a day before his death, when he appeared for a court date via video link from prison.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears in a Russian court via video link from the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp in Russia's far northern Yamal-Nenets region on February 15, 2024, a day before prison authorities said he died after being tried had to kill him a walk in prison. SOTAVISION/Portal
At the IK-3 Polar Wolf penal colony in Russia's far north, where he was held after a handful of convictions, he appeared emaciated but appeared healthy and in good spirits – all of him and his many supporters around the world. always dismissed as unfounded and politically motivated.
Prison officials said he went for a walk on Friday, suddenly felt ill and collapsed, then could not be revived by prison doctors. They later attributed it to “sudden death syndrome.”
But Navalny's allies, President Biden and many other world leaders, say Putin bears responsibility for the death of his most prominent critic.
The Russian president was pictured smiling during a visit to factory workers shortly after news of Navalny's death broke on Friday, but he has still not commented publicly.
After exposing corruption at nearly every level of the Russian state, often directed at Putin himself, Navalny survived at least two poisoning attempts and spent years in some of Russia's most notorious prisons before dying at age 47, along with his wife Yulia and two left children behind.
World leaders, including Mr. Biden, have vowed to hold those responsible for Navalny's death accountable, but with Russians set to vote in just weeks and Mr. Putin all but assured of another full term The need for accountability at every level seemed a long way off on Monday.
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