The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navaly, who died last week in prison, accused the authorities this Thursday, February 22, of threatening her and of wanting to bury the dissident politician secretly so that his supporters could not say goodbye to President Vladimir's number one enemy. Putin. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden promised sanctions against Russia in a meeting with the opponent's widow, Yulia Navalny, and her daughter, Dasha.
“They are blackmailing me, they are putting conditions on where, when and how my son should be buried,” said this Thursday, February 22, the mother of the Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in prison last week. “They want me to do it secretly, without a mourning ceremony.”
“In my presence they receive orders from the Kremlin or the central apparatus of the Instruction Committee. They want it to be done in secret, without farewell. They want to take me to the outskirts of the cemetery, to a fresh grave and say: 'Here lies your son,'” he said in a video posted on the Navalny team's Telegram channel.
The politician's mother, Liudmila Naválnaya, added: “I don't agree with this. “I want you, those who loved Alexei, for whom his death was a personal tragedy, to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him.”
“I am recording this video because they have started to threaten me: looking into my eyes they tell me that if I do not accept a secret funeral, they will do something with my son,” says the parent, who said she had had access to the body the day before and had signed the medical certificate of death.
He mentioned a researcher named Voropaev, who told him openly: “Time is not in your favor, the corpse is decomposing.”
“I don't want special conditions, I just want everything to be done according to the law. I demand that the body be handed over to me immediately,” he insisted.
Navalnaya assured that Russian specialists claim to know the reason for the death of the opponent, on Friday, February 16, in the “Polar Wolf” Arctic prison. but they continue to refuse to hand over the body.
“Under the law they should have given me Alexei's body immediately, but they have not done so until today. Instead, they blackmail me, they put conditions on me: where, when and how Alexei must be buried. This is illegal “he says in the video.
The Kremlin's conditions for delivering Navalni's body to his family
Navalny's spokesperson, Kyra Yarmish, assured on Telegram that the medical certificate signed by the mother states that the opponent died of “natural causes.”
Meanwhile, lawyer Iván Zhdanov, right-hand man of the deceased opponent, He assured that the authorities imposed three conditions on the mother.
The first is that Liudmila Navalnaya cannot speak publicly about the funeral so that the body cannot be received at the airport by his supporters.
The second is that during the funeral The family of the deceased must be accompanied at all times by a member of the Russian Investigative Committeea body that depends directly on the Kremlin.
Finally, Only upon arrival in Moscow with the body will the burial date be decidedwhich will take place in the Russian capital or in the town of Vladimir.
“The funeral must be exclusively family. As they secretly buried (the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny) Prigozhin, so it must happen with Alexei Navalny,” they told him, according to Zhdanov.
A few days ago, Navalny's mother sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for her son's body to be handed over to her, while his co-religionists filed a lawsuit in court to speed up the delivery of the body.
“I am addressing you, Vladimir Putin. The solution to this matter depends only on you. Let me see my son once and for all!” said Liudmila Naválnaya in a video posted on YouTube and X.
Navalny's widow, Yulia, and her team directly blame Putin for ordering the murder of his main political opponent.
The Kremlin strongly denied the accusations and called to wait for the results of the autopsy, while Putin has not publicly alluded to the issue.
US asks Russia to hand over Navalny's body without conditions
This Thursday, the United States asked Vladimir Putin's government to unconditionally hand over Alexei Navalny's body to his family, after complaints from his mother.
“The Russians must return her son (…) and recognize that, in fact, they are responsible for his disappearance,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press conference.
Kirby explained that He cannot confirm that the blackmail took place, but stated that it is necessary that his mother be able to receive his body. and “being able to properly remember” her “bravery and her courage” and “do all the things that any mother would want to do having lost a child in such a tragic way.”
On the other hand, the White House reported on a meeting that took place in San Francisco between the US president, Joe Biden, with the opponent's widow, Yulia Navalny, and his daughter, Dasha, to whom the president extended his “heartfelt condolences” for his lost.
At this meeting, Biden would have told the relatives of the deceased opponent that his Government plans to promote an “important” package of economic sanctions against Moscowin response to the death of Alexei Navalny.
With EFE
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