The Kremlin assured today that the official investigation into the causes of the death in prison of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is still underway and refused to comment on the authorities' refusal to hand over the body to the family.
“The investigation is still underway, all necessary actions are being carried out in this regard. But at the moment the results of this investigation have not been made public and, in fact, are unknown,” presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov said during the daily telephone press conference.
Peskov stressed that whether or not Navalny's body is handed over to his relatives “is not a matter” of the Kremlin.
“We are not dedicated to that. That is not the function of the Presidential Administration,” said the spokesman, who also denied that the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, had reacted to the death of his number one enemy.
Of course, the official did not hesitate to label as “rude” and “unacceptable” the statements made by Western leaders who hold the Kremlin responsible for the opponent's death.
“These statements, of course, cannot cause any harm to our head of state, but neither do they do any honor to those who make them,” he said.
The Russian authorities today refused for the third consecutive day to hand over to the family the body of the Russian opposition leader, who died suddenly last Friday in an Arctic prison.
“They didn't let them in. They literally pushed one of the lawyers out,” Navalny's team, which blames the Kremlin for the death of its leader, reported on its Telegram channel.
The politician's mother, Liudmila Naválnaya, went to the morgue on Monday to pick up the body, but the employees said they did not know where the deceased's body was.
In turn, the Russian Investigative Committee informed the mother and lawyer that “the investigation into the death has been prolonged.”
“It is unknown how long it can last. For the moment, the causes of death 'have not been established'. They lie, buy time and do not even hide it,” adds the opposition's team.
The opposition's allies directly accuse Putin of ordering his murder in the 'Polar Wolf' prison to which he was sent last December after launching a campaign against the Kremlin head's re-election.
EFE
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