A senior assistant to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on his social media account on Saturday that Navalny’s body had been given to his mother.
Earlier on Saturday, Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, alleged that President Vladimir Putin was making fun of Christianity by pressuring his mother to consent to a covert burial.
The 47-year-old opposition politician from Russia, Navalny, tragically passed away on February 16 in an Arctic prison colony. His family battled for over a week to get their loved one’s remains returned. Leading Russians made videos demanding that the body be freed, while Western countries imposed further sanctions on Russia in retaliation for Navalny’s passing and the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.
In a video, Navalny’s widow said that the authorities were “literally torturing” Navalny’s mother and threatening to bury him in the Arctic prison. According to Navalnaya, they advised his mother that the body was decaying and she didn’t have much time to decide.
On Saturday, Orthodox Christians observe a mourning ceremony nine days after the opposition leader’s passing. To commemorate the event and pay tribute to Navalny, people from all over Russia turned out in large numbers, setting up one-person protests, putting flowers at prominent landmarks, and attending Orthodox churches.
In an attempt to quell any significant show of support for Putin’s most formidable opponent prior to the presidential election that he is almost guaranteed to win, authorities arrested a large number of people.
By Saturday night, at least 38 Russians had been arrested for endorsing Navalny, according to the rights organization OVDInfo, which keeps tabs on political arrests.
Source: Emma Burrows and Joanna Kozlowska, February 25, 2024 Associated Press.
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