The opposition leader’s mother was given an ultimatum – agree to a secret funeral or Navalny will be buried at the Arctic penal colony where he died.
Russian authorities are threatening to bury Alexei Navalny on the grounds of the Arctic prison colony where he died unless his family agrees to a closed funeral, the opposition leader’s team said on Friday.
The 47-year-old Kremlin critic died last week after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters.
Several leading Russian cultural figures and activists have called on authorities to release the body to his mother, who arrived at the prison colony in northern Siberia last Saturday.
“An hour ago, an investigator called Alexei’s mother and gave her an ultimatum,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“She has three hours to agree to a secret funeral without a public farewell, or Alexei will be buried in the colony.”
His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, “refused to negotiate … because they have no authority to decide how and where to bury her son”, Yarmysh added.
She has now filed a lawsuit alleging the “desecration” of his body, said Ivan Zhdanov, an exiled ally of the late leader.
