As of: February 20, 2024, 1:20 p.m
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Alexei Navalny in Moscow in February 2021.
© Uncredited/Moscow City Court/AP/dpa
The mother of Kremlin opponent Navalny, who died in custody, has been looking for her son in the polar region for five days.
Now she addresses President Putin in a video message.
Charp - The mother of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, sent a video message to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin asking for the body to be released.
She is standing in front of the “Polar Wolf” prison camp and has been waiting for the fifth day to be able to see her son, said Lyudmila Navalnaya in the video message published on Tuesday.
He died there on February 16th.
“I turn to you, Vladimir Putin.
The decision of the question depends only on you.
“Let me finally see my son,” she said.
“I demand that Alexei’s body be returned immediately so that I can bury him in a humane manner,” she said.
She has not yet received the body nor has she been told where the body will be kept.
According to Navalny's team, investigators had previously said that the body would be kept under lock and key for another 14 days pending investigation.
On the other hand, relatives and employees of the opposition activist are demanding that the body be returned.
According to Russian authorities, Navalny, who was physically weakened after many days in repeated solitary confinement, collapsed in freezing temperatures on Friday during a walk in the prison camp in the polar region.
According to the prison service, attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.
Navalny was 47 years old at the time of death.
Human rights activists accuse the Russian power apparatus of murder.
Putin's critics have been repeatedly murdered in Russia in recent years.
dpa