Navalny’s Body Handed Over to Mother Amid Uncertainty over Funeral

Eight days after he died in jail … fearing that the Russian government force them to hold a private funeral

Memorial for France’s Navalny /AFP Yonhap News Agency file photo.

On the 24th (local time), Kira Yarmysh, spokesperson for Alexei Navalny, a Russian anti-government activist who died in prison, announced that Navalny’s body was handed over to his family eight days after his death.

Yarmysh, the spokesperson, posted on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) today, “Alexei’s body has been handed over to his mother,” and “We are immensely grateful to everyone who demanded this (handover of the body) with us.”

Navalny, a prominent Russian opposition figure, suddenly died on the 16th in the third prison of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District in northern Siberia.

Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, has been searching for her son’s body in the village of Salekhard near the third prison since the 17th. Still, she was only able to confirm the body on the 22nd, she announced.

However, Navalnaya claimed through Yarmysh, the spokesperson, the day before that the investigators examining Navalny’s cause of death threatened to bury the body in the prison if they did not agree to hold a private funeral.

Yarmysh, the spokesperson, explained, “Lyudmila is still in Salekhard, and the funeral has not yet taken place.” She added, “We do not know if the authorities will interfere with the funeral that the family wants and Navalny deserves.”

Earlier that day, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, criticized in a video posted on X that Russian President Vladimir Putin is directing not to return Navalny’s body. She demanded, “Give me back my husband’s body. I want to hold a funeral and bury the body in the ground in a humane way according to Orthodox Christian customs.”