Yulia Navalnaïa, who vowed to continue the fight for her husband Alexeï Navalny who died in a Russian prison, accused Vladimir Putin on Saturday of having taken the body hostage to force his mother to accept a secret burial. “Nine days since "Putin killed my husband (...) but it turns out that killing was not enough, now he has taken his remains hostage, humiliating his mother to force her to accept a secret burial," said d' a trembling voice from the widow of the Kremlin's number 1 adversary in an online video.
“It's Putin (...) who gives the orders saying: 'don't give him back, put pressure on the mother, break her, tell her that her son's body is decomposing',” she continues.
For more than a week, Lioudmila Navalnaïa, the opponent's mother, has been trying to recover the remains of her son who died on February 16 in a prison in a remote Arctic region where Navalny was imprisoned.
According to her, the authorities set a condition for returning the body to her that the burial be secret.
In the opinion of observers, the Kremlin fears that a funeral will become a public event, especially since Russia is organizing a presidential election in mid-March which should see Vladimir Putin triumph once again.
“
You tortured him when he was alive, now you torture him after his death
,” Ms. Navalnaïa said again.
The Russian president did not react to the death of his main critic, who was serving a 19-year prison sentence and had survived a poisoning.
The Kremlin has orchestrated, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine two years ago today, a merciless repression of all its detractors.