The body of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny was handed over to his mother

The remains of Alexeï Navalny, which his relatives had requested for more than a week, have been handed over to his mother, the Russian opponent’s spokesperson announced in a message posted on the social network, Saturday February 24. Kira Iarmich adds that she does not yet know if “the authorities will prevent [les obsèques] to happen as the family wishes and as Alexei deserves”.

Alexeï Navalny died on February 16 in a prison in the Arctic, where he had been incarcerated for several weeks. Since this date, his mother Lyoudmila Navalnaïa has been trying to recover his body. According to her, the Russian authorities have set as a condition for returning it that the burial of Alexei Navalny be secret. According to observers, the Kremlin fears that a funeral will become a public event.

A few weeks before a presidential election without any real suspense over Vladimir Putin’s future victory, the Russian autocrat has not reacted to the death of his main detractor, who was serving a 19-year prison sentence and had survived a poisoning. The repression of political opponents of Vladimir Putin has continued to intensify in recent years, particularly since the start of the war in Ukraine.