Alexei Navalny’s team accuses Moscow of hiding his body

(Moscow) Relatives of Alexeï Navalny on Saturday described the Russian authorities as “killers” seeking to “cover their tracks” by refusing to hand over his body, the Kremlin remaining silent despite accusations from the West and rallies in tribute to the opponent.

Despite severe repression and warnings, hundreds of Russians participated in small rallies on Saturday in several cities to pay tribute to this famous critic of the Kremlin, who died the day before at the age of 47 in a prison in the Russian Arctic . Since Friday, the police have made 231 arrests during these events, according to the specialized NGO OVD-Info.

The authorities are on alert, one month before the presidential election which should see Mr. Putin reappointed in the absence of any opposition.

Alexei Navalny’s team said the authorities were refusing to return his mother’s remains, arguing that the cause of her death had not been established.

“It is obvious that the killers want to cover their tracks. That’s why they don’t hand over Alexei’s body and even hide it from his mother,” she wrote on Telegram.

A lawyer for the opponent, who came to see the investigators, was informed “that a new histological examination [avait] been carried out” and that the results “should be known next week,” wrote the deceased’s spokesperson, Kira Iarmich.

“It is obvious that they are lying and doing everything possible to avoid having to hand over the body,” she added.

The spokesperson indicated in an online video that the opponent’s mother, Lyoudmila Navalnaïa, had gone on Saturday, with a lawyer, to the IK-3 penal colony in the Arctic region of Yamal and that a “ official document” had been given to him confirming the death.

“Alexeï Navalny was killed,” said M^me Iarmich who went into exile, like many opponents, to escape prison. “His death occurred on February 16 at 2:17 p.m. local time (4:17 a.m. Eastern Time), according to the official document.”

Lapidary

Russian prison authorities announced Friday, in a terse press release, that the famous activist, imprisoned for three years, had died in the penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence.

The 47-year-old man, whose health was weakened by poisoning and his imprisonment, would have “felt unwell after a walk” and would have “lost consciousness”, they explained. They assured that everything had been done to resuscitate him and that the causes of death were “in the process of being established”.

No details have leaked since, and Vladimir Putin has not said a word about the disappearance of this major political personality, a death which comes one month before the presidential election of March 15-17 which should see the master of the Kremlin reappointed , in the absence of any opposition.

This has been decimated by repression, particularly since the start of the Russian assault on Ukraine two years ago.

Western countries, for their part, denounced with one voice the “responsibility” of the Russian regime.

American President Joe Biden, “scandalized”, accused his Russian counterpart of being “responsible”. A message hammered home by all Western leaders.

So many accusations that the Kremlin deemed “absolutely unacceptable” on Friday.

Vladimir Putin remains silent, although he has been informed. He appeared on television on Saturday at an event for the gas group Gazprom.

” Do not abandon ”

An ally of the Kremlin, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the other hand, has not commented on this “internal affair of Russia”.

If the Russian authorities are silent on the circumstances of the death of the opponent and the state media barely mention his death, they have however warned the population against any demonstration.

Despite arrests, Russians marched in several cities on Saturday to lay flowers, particularly on monuments in memory of dissidents who were victims of political repression during the Soviet era.

At midday on Saturday, around fifteen Muscovites were arrested by the police during a gathering at the foot of a monument to the memory of Soviet repression, reported the independent Russian media Sota.

Shortly after, AFP journalists witnessed a new arrest there. But at the beginning of the afternoon, onlookers were able, under close police surveillance, to approach the monument by leaving flowers and messages there.

” Do not abandon ! “, “We will never forget, we will never surrender, Russia will be free”, could we read on the sheets of paper scattered among the flowers at the foot of the “mourning wall” near Sakharov Avenue, a traditional place of opposition rallies and a thoroughfare named after a famous Soviet dissident.

” In good health ”

Alexei Navalny was serving a 19-year sentence for “extremism” in a remote Arctic penal colony, in very difficult conditions. The trials brought against him were widely denounced as a way of punishing him for his opposition to Vladimir Putin.

On Thursday, the opponent participated by video in two hearings before a court in the Vladimir region and did not complain about his health, according to the state news agency Ria Novosti.

His mother said she saw her son on Monday “in good health and in a happy mood”, in a Facebook message cited by the independent newspaper Nova Gazera.

His disappearance deprives an opposition of its figurehead, bloodless after years of repression.

Repression

Prison had not dampened Alexeï Navalny’s determination. During his trial hearings and in messages broadcast through his team, he never stopped insulting Vladimir Putin.

In his trial for “extremism”, he castigated “the stupidest and most senseless war of the 21st^e century”, evoking the Russian offensive against Ukraine which began on February 24, 2022.

And in a message on 1^er February broadcast by his team, the opponent had called for demonstrations throughout Russia during the presidential election.

Many opponents have been imprisoned or driven into exile in recent years and repression has increased further since 2022.

Read “A long list of opponents targeted”

Read Laura-Julie Perreault’s column “The invincible Navalny”