Alexei Navalny’s mother says Russian investigators pressuring her for secret burial
- Lyudmila says she was taken to a morgue to see her son, but instead of releasing his body, officials were ‘blackmailing’ her over the funeral arrangements
- Navalny’s aides say the death certificate states that the opposition politician and Putin critic had died of natural causes
Alexei Navalny’s mother Lyudmila accused Russian investigators on Thursday of planning to bury her son in secret without a funeral, and said she would not agree to it.
“They want this to be done secretly, with no farewell. They want to bring me to the edge of a cemetery, to a fresh grave and say: here lies your son. I don’t agree to this,” she said in a YouTube video.
There was no immediate response from Russian investigators.
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony last week. His aides and family have alleged that the Kremlin murdered him, an allegation the Kremlin has rejected.
His mother said she had been shown his body and death certificate. Navalny’s aides said the death certificate stated that the opposition politician had died of natural causes.