Navalny's members are under massive pressure from the authorities. It's about the funeral of the Kremlin critic who died in the prison camp. They were threatened with a burial on prison grounds.
According to a long-time comrade-in-arms of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony, the Russian authorities have threatened to bury the 47-year-old on prison grounds.
Authorities issue a three-hour ultimatum
Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, was given a three-hour deadline to accept a private funeral behind closed doors, Ivan Zhdanov said on social media. Otherwise the burial will take place on the prison grounds.
Navalnaya refuses to continue the negotiations. She insisted that authorities follow the law and hand over the body within 48 hours of determining the cause of death, which would be Saturday, Zhdanov said. She also filed a complaint accusing the authorities of desecrating the body.
Navalny's mother is encountering considerable resistance
Following the news of the death of Russia's best-known opposition politician in Penal Colony No. 3 in Charp, about 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) northeast of Moscow, hundreds of Russians across the country laid flowers and lit candles at improvised memorials. A number of people were arrested.
Since last week, Navalny's mother and the Kremlin opponent's lawyers have been trying to have his body handed over, but have encountered considerable resistance. On Thursday, Navalnaya said investigators had allowed her to see the body of her dead son in the morgue in the city of Salekhard. Authorities tried to force her to have a secret burial, she said. “They want to do it in secret and without a mourning ceremony.”
Navalny's widow accuses Putin of murder
Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch wrote on Network Jarmysch did not provide any information as to what specific cause was given. Navalny's mother is demanding the body be returned in a lawsuit.
Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband. The refusal to hand over his body was part of an attempted cover-up. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the allegations “absolutely unfounded, outrageous accusations against the Russian head of state.”
