Russia tells Alexei Navalny's mother: 'Agree within three hours to a private funeral for your son or we bury him in the prison'

Russia has given Alexei Navalny's mother an ultimatum after she demanded that Kremlin officials return her son's body immediately. 

Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said today that Russian authorities had told Lyudmila Navalnaya that he would be buried in the penal colony where he died unless she agreed within three hours to lay him to rest without a public funeral.

Yarmash said Navalnaya was refusing and continuing to demand that his body be handed to her. There was no immediate comment from the authorities. 

Navalny, Putin's strongest domestic critic, fell unconscious and died suddenly aged 47 last Friday after a walk at the 'Polar Wolf' penal colony above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said. 

Navalnaya, 69, revealed that she has been taken in secret to the morgue in Salekhard to see his body, but investigators are refusing to hand it to her for a burial.

She made the allegation in a YouTube video published on Thursday, in which she accused officials of 'threatening' to do 'something' with Navalny's body if she does not agree to a secret funeral with no mourners.

Navalnaya also claimed an investigator warned that 'time is not on your side, corpses decompose'.

Navalny's spokeswoman said Lyudmila Navalnaya (pictured in a video released on Thursday) was refusing the ultimatum and continuing to demand that his body be handed to her

Navalnaya, 69, revealed Navalny has been taken in secret to the morgue in Salekhard to see his body, but claims state investigators are refusing to hand it to her for a burial

Navalny, Putin's strongest domestic critic, fell unconscious and died suddenly aged 47 last Friday after a walk at the 'Polar Wolf' penal colony (pictured) above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said

But the grieving mother has hit back at the 'illegal' practice, saying: 'I demand that Alexei's body is released immediately, so that I can bury him like a human being.'

Navalnaya's revelations suggest state investigators are seeking to prevent an independent examination of the Russian opposition leader's body for signs of torture or murder, and also block an open funeral where thousands could come to pay homage.

In the video, Navalnaya said: 'I have just left the building of the Investigative Committee of the city of Salekhard.

'I spent almost a day there alone, with investigators and forensic experts.

'The lawyer was allowed in only today after lunch. Yesterday evening, they secretly took me to the morgue, where they showed me Alexei.

'Investigators claim that they know the cause of death.'

She did not say if she knows what this is.

The West and Navalny's supporters, including his widow Yulia Navalnaya, 47, say Putin is responsible for Navalny's death. 

The Kremlin has denied involvement and said that Western claims that he was behind the death were unacceptable.

The West and Navalny's supporters, including his widow Yulia Navalnaya, 47, say Putin is responsible for Navalny's death 

Putin himself has made no public comment on Navalny's death but it has further deepened a gaping schism in relations between Moscow and the West caused by the Ukraine war, which is almost at the two-year mark.

'They have all the medical and legal documents ready, which I saw,' Navalnaya said. 'And I signed the death certificate. By law, they were supposed to hand over Alexei's body to me immediately, but they haven't done so yet.

'Instead, they are blackmailing me, imposing conditions on me regarding where, when, and how Alexei should be buried.

'This is illegal. I've seen orders come to them in my presence, either from the Kremlin or from the central apparatus of the Investigative Committee.'

She added: 'They want it to be done secretly, without a farewell. They want to take me to the outskirts of a cemetery to a fresh grave and say, "Here lies your son". I disagree with this.

'I want everyone, those who hold Alexei dear, for whom his death has become a personal tragedy, to have the opportunity to bid him farewell.

'I'm recording this video because they started threatening me, looking me in the eye. They say that if I don't agree to the secret funeral, they will do something to my son's body.'

Since Putin's forces invaded Ukraine, the scope for dissent in Russia has narrowed even further. Russian authorities have tightened speech restrictions and jailed critics, many of whom are ordinary people, sometimes for decades. 

Hundreds of people who laid flowers in Navalny's memory across Russia were detained.

Putin himself has made no public comment on Navalny's death but it has further deepened a gaping schism in relations between Moscow and the West caused by the Ukraine war, which is almost at the two-year mark

In a video message, Yulia Navalnya, 47, (pictured) said: 'Vladimir Putin killed my husband'

Navalnaya appeared in a video earlier this week and appealed to Putin to turn her son's body over to her so she can bury him with dignity.

Standing outside the Arctic penal colony where Navalny died last Friday, she said to the camera: 'For the fifth day, I have been unable to see him.'

'They wouldn't release his body to me,' she added.

'And they're not even telling me where he is,' a black-clad Navalnaya said in the video, with the barbed wire of Penal Colony No. 3 in Kharp, about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow.

'I'm reaching out to you, Vladimir Putin,' she said. 'The resolution of this matter depends solely on you. Let me finally see my son.'

She named one state investigator – Voropaev – who 'openly' told her: 'Time is not on your side. The body is decomposing.'

She said: 'I don't want any special conditions, I just want everything to be done according to the law.

'I demand that Alexei's body is released immediately, so that I can bury him like a human being.'

Russian authorities have said the cause of Navalny's death is still unknown and refused to release his body for the next two weeks as the preliminary inquest continues, members of his team said.

They accused the government of stalling to try to hide evidence.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has rejected the allegations of a cover-up, telling reporters that 'these are absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state'. 

Navalny's death has deprived the Russian opposition of its best-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power.

Many Russians had seen Navalny as a rare hope for political change amid Putin's unrelenting crackdown on the opposition

Many Russians had seen Navalny as a rare hope for political change amid the Russian president's unrelenting crackdown on the opposition.

Navalny was imprisoned since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He received three prison terms since then, on charges he rejected as politically motivated.

Since Navalny's death, about 400 people have been detained across in Russia as they tried to pay tribute to him with flowers and candles, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests.

Authorities cordoned off some of the memorials to victims of Soviet repression across the country that were being used as sites to leave makeshift tributes to Navalny.

Police removed the flowers at night, but more keep appearing.

Peskov said police were acting 'in accordance with the law' by detaining people paying tribute to Navalny.

Over 60,000 people have submitted requests to the government asking for Navalny's remains to be handed over to his relatives, OVD-Info said.

After the last verdict that resulted in a 19-year term, Navalny said he understood he was 'serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime'. 

In a video on Monday, his widow Yulia said: 'By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul.'

'But I still have the other half, and it tells me that I have no right to give up.'

'I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny,' Navalnaya said.