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Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of Alexei Navalny, has demanded that Vladimir Putin release her son's body:
“I demand that Alexei's body be released immediately so that I can give him a decent burial.”
Lyudmila Navalnaya's written appeal to Vladimir Putin, demanding that Navalny's body be released to his family
“Behind my back is the IK-3 ‘Polar Wolf’ colony, where my son Alexei Navalny died on February 16. For the fifth day I cannot see him, I am not given his body and I am not even told where he is. I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, the solution of [this] problem depends only on you. Let me see my son at last. I demand the immediate release of Alexei's body so that I can give him a decent burial,” said Lyudmila Navalnaya in a video released earlier today.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said that the investigation into the circumstances of Navalny's death was “underway,” adding that “all necessary actions provided for by law are being carried out.” He also added that the issue of transferring the body to relatives does not concern the Kremlin. “We are not engaged in this case,” news agency Interfax quoted Peskov as saying.
On February 19, Alexei Navalny's mother was informed by the Russian Investigative Committee that the investigation into how her son died had been “extended”; how long it will take remains unclear.
“We went through this after the poisoning in Omsk. We went through it with belongings that were not returned after the poisoning. Time and again they extended the deadlines for the inspection and never returned anything,” wrote Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) director Ivan Zhdanov.