Aleksei A. Navalny’s political allies on Saturday confirmed his demise, saying that his mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, had acquired an official notification that her son died on Friday afternoon. The affirmation got here as Russian officers detained lots of of individuals mourning his demise.
Mr. Navalny’s household was nonetheless ready for officers to launch the physique. Kira Yarmysh, Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, stated in an announcement on X that Russian investigators had transferred Mr. Navalny’s physique from a penal colony within the Arctic to the city of Salekhard, the place it was being examined.
“We demand for Aleksei Navalny’s physique to be launched to his household instantly,” Ms. Yarmysh stated in her assertion.
The detentions of Mr. Navalny’s mourners signaled that the Kremlin needed to stop his demise from turning right into a political occasion. At the very least 400 folks in 36 cities had been detained for the reason that demise was introduced on Friday, in accordance to OVD Data, a rights group that tracks such arrests.
In Moscow, lots of of Russians got here to the Wall of Grief monument honoring victims of political repression in Russia. They have been met with a heavy police presence. In a single day, Moscow metropolis authorities eliminated piles of flowers that individuals had left to commemorate Mr. Navalny.
Mr. Navalny’s mom and one among his attorneys arrived on Saturday morning on the penal colony within the Kharp settlement, Ms. Yarmysh stated in a video assertion. She and others needed to wait for 2 hours earlier than a jail official got here out to say that Mr. Navalny’s physique had been transferred to Salekhard.
Ivan Zhdanov, the pinnacle of Mr. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, stated in a publish on X that they have been instructed within the penal colony that he died due to the “sudden demise syndrome.”
In Salekhard, a regional middle near the penal colony, Mr. Navalny’s mom and his lawyer discovered the native morgue closed. Once they referred to as, the officers stated that Mr. Navalny’s physique was not there, Ms. Yarmysh stated. One other lawyer was instructed, she stated, that an “extra histology” had been carried out to find out the reason for Mr. Navalny’s demise, and that its outcomes ought to be prepared subsequent week.
“They lie and so they do every little thing to not give out the physique,” Ms. Yarmysh stated.
In a separate video handle, Ms. Yarmysh accused Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, of killing Mr. Navalny.
“Three and a half years in the past Putin tried to kill Aleksei,” Ms. Yarmysh stated, referring to Mr. Navalny’s poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020. “Yesterday, he killed him.”
Ms. Yarmysh is a member of a workforce of Mr. Navalny’s allies. Working from exterior Russia, they’ve continued to hold out his work after his poisoning and his subsequent imprisonment, publishing his statements and organizing political occasions.
Jail authorities stated Mr. Navalny fell unconscious and died after a stroll on the penal colony, the place he had been transferred on the finish of December.
Of their assertion about his demise, the jail authorities stated that its causes have been “being decided.” Native investigators stated that they’d begun a “procedural verify” into Mr. Navalny’s demise. They stated “a set of investigative and operative measures is being carried out aimed toward establishing all circumstances of the incident.”
Yevgeny Smirnov, a Russian lawyer, stated meaning a forensic medical examination might be being carried out on Mr. Navalny’s physique. Family members can retrieve the physique for burial solely after the reason for demise is formally decided, Mr. Smirnov stated.
In response to Public Verdict, a Russian rights group, such medical examinations normally give solely very normal causes of demise.
“Such investigations completely can’t be trusted,” the group stated in an announcement.
Upon retrieving the physique, kinfolk can bury it at a cemetery, the group stated. Mr. Navalny’s relations haven’t commented on the potential burial preparations.
