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Russian authorities have warned Aleksei A. Navalny’s mom that if she doesn’t comply with a secret funeral, the late opposition campaigner will probably be buried by the state on jail grounds, in accordance with Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, Mr. Navalny’s mom, was given three hours to comply with the ultimatum however she refused to barter, arguing that Russian authorities had no authorized proper to resolve the time and place of her son’s burial, in accordance with Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh.
“She is demanding compliance with the regulation, which requires investigators handy over the physique inside two days, from the second the reason for loss of life is established,” Ms. Yarmysh stated in an announcement launched on X. The 2 days expire on Saturday.
Mr. Navalny’s mom is “insisting the authorities permit a funeral and memorial service to be held in accordance with custom,” Ms. Yarmysh added. It was unclear whether or not Russian authorities proceeded with burying the physique on Friday after the deadline for the ultimatum had come and gone.
The ultimatum was the most recent twist in a macabre saga, through which Mr. Navalny’s 69-year-old mom has been attempting to retrieve her son’s physique for almost per week at an Arctic morgue in Russia, close to the jail the place he died.
The Kremlin has lengthy portrayed Mr. Navalny as insignificant, with President Vladimir V. Putin even avoiding saying his title in public. However the battle over his physique advised the other, as Russian authorities confirmed intense sensitivity to the opportunity of a public funeral amid an total crackdown on dissent.
Russian authorities have detained or arrested tons of of Mr. Navalny’s supporters in latest days, in some instances merely for laying flowers at memorials to mark his passing.
Information of the ultimatum to his mom got here as the USA introduced a brand new spherical of sanctions in opposition to Moscow that designated three Russian penal officers overseeing the jail above the Arctic Circle the place Mr. Navalny was being held.
The sanctions got here a day after President Biden met Mr. Navalny’s widow and daughter in California and praised the Kremlin critic’s “legacy of braveness.”
After the announcement of Mr. Navalny’s loss of life on Feb. 16, his mom needed to wait 5 days earlier than Russian authorities confirmed her the physique. On Thursday, she was proven a medical report that claimed he died of pure causes.
At that time, Ms. Navalnaya accused the authorities of “blackmailing” her and stated they have been refusing to launch her son’s stays till she agreed to a secret funeral and not using a public goodbye.
In response, she filed a grievance with Russian authorities in opposition to the investigator dealing with the case, asking that he be charged below Article 244 of the Russian prison code, which prohibits the desecration of a lifeless physique, Mr. Navalny’s anti-corruption group stated Friday.
Russian authorities dealing with the autopsy investigation of Mr. Navalny’s physique are a part of the identical safety equipment that, in accordance with the U.S. authorities, used the nerve agent Novichok to poison Mr. Navalny in 2020.
The standoff over the physique has led to an outpouring of assist for Mr. Navalny’s household by celebrities, who’ve launched movies demanding that Russian authorities hand over his stays to his mom with none situation or delay.
The ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov, the Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich and the director Andrey Zvyagintsev have been amongst those that launched video messages.
“It’s uncomfortable to even talk about this in a rustic that thus far nonetheless considers itself Christian,” Dmitri A. Muratov, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian editor, stated in a video.
“Simply hand it over — and that’s it,” he added.
Mr. Navalny was seen on video in obvious good spirits the day earlier than Russian authorities introduced his loss of life. Within the footage, from a prison courtroom listening to, Mr. Navalny may be seen cracking a joke in feedback to the decide overseeing one of many many prison instances the Russian authorities had filed in opposition to him.
Mr. Navalny’s spouse and aides have accused Mr. Putin of killing him, if indirectly than by incarcerating him for 3 years below inhumane situations. Since his most up-to-date imprisonment started in 2021, he has spent greater than 1 / 4 of his time in solitary “punishment cells” identified for his or her frigid temperatures.
Moscow has dismissed the accusations about Mr. Putin’s culpability, accusing Western leaders of leaping to conclusions and displaying anti-Russian bias.
Mr. Putin has made no point out of Mr. Navalny within the week since Russian jail authorities introduced the loss of life. He has made a number of public appearances, together with a publicity stunt on Thursday, through which he went for a trip in a nuclear-capable strategic bomber.
The pinnacle of Mr. Navalny’s anti-corruption basis, Ivan Zhdanov, who has left Russia, launched a video on Friday interesting on to members of the Russian safety companies.
“You may’t argue that there are fundamental common human ideas — which you can’t blackmail a mom with the physique of her youngster, whereas telling her horrible issues that may occur,” Mr. Zhdanov stated. “This contradicts your responsibility. Those that are doing this are extraordinarily disgusting.”
He accused Russian authorities of doing so below Mr. Putin’s orders.
“They’re blackmailing a girl who misplaced essentially the most priceless factor she had — her son,” he stated.
He reiterated an attraction for details about the circumstances of Mr. Navalny’s loss of life and promised a reward to anybody with essential data.
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