Killers won’t hand over body, say Navalny supporters

Alexei Navalny’s supporters have accused Russian authorities of being ‘killers’ who were ‘covering their tracks’ by ­refusing to hand over his body.

People lay flowers in Moscow at the monument to the victims of political repression after the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Picture: AFP

Alexei Navalny’s supporters have accused Russian authorities of being “killers” who were “covering their tracks” by ­refusing to hand over his body, as the Kremlin stayed silent despite Western accusations and a flood of tributes to the opposition leader.

The 47-year-old Kremlin critic died in an Arctic prison on Friday night AEDT after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters.

Navalny’s lawyer and his mother, Lyudmila, were told at the prison on Saturday that he had died of “sudden death syndrome”, according to a post on X by Ivan Zhdanov, a close aide to Navalny.

Lyudmila and the lawyer were refused access to his body, after ­arriving in the region of the remote prison colony where he had been held, his spokeswoman Kira ­Yarmysh said.

“It’s obvious that the killers want to cover their tracks and are therefore not handing over Alexei’s body, hiding it even from his mother,” Navalny’s team said in a post on Telegram.

Tributes continued to pour in as supporters staged anti-Putin protests and set up ­memorials at Russian diplomatic missions around the world.

In Russia, police detained hundreds of people who had laid flowers at monuments to the victims of political repression, rights groups said.

In a video posted from Moscow by the independent Sota outlet, a woman could be heard screaming as a crowd of police forcefully ­detained her, to chants of “shame” from onlookers.

Police detain a woman in Moscow as people come to the monument to the victims of political repression. Picture: AFP

Another showed a group of people in plain clothes removing flowers from a monument opposite the former headquarters of the Soviet secret police, while police blocked off the area.

On a bridge next to the Kremlin, hooded men were seen scooping up flowers into bin bags that had been laid at an unofficial memorial to Navalny ally, slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov.

One memorial, crafted around a monument to victims of Soviet-era repression known as the Wall of Grief, began accumulating hundreds of flowers, candles and notes early on Saturday.

Some visited with their families and children. Others wept.

Police detain a man in Moscow near the monument to the victims of political repression. Picture: AFP

“Alexei Navalny’s death is the worst thing that could happen to Russia,” said one note, nestled in between flowers and photos of the late politician.

Russia’s federal penitentiary service said Navalny had died after he “felt bad after a walk” and lost consciousness.

Navalny lawyer Leonid Solovyov told the Novaya Gazeta newspaper he was “normal” when another lawyer saw him on Wednesday. In footage of a court hearing on Thursday, Navalny was seen smiling and joking as he addressed the judge by video link.

G7 foreign ministers meeting in Munich held a minute’s silence for the leader on Saturday, while US President Joe Biden pointed the blame at Putin. “Make no mistake, Putin is ­responsible for Navalny’s death,” he said.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference hours after news of her husband’s death, Yulia Navalnaya said Putin and his entourage would be “punished for everything they have done to our country, to my family and to my husband”.

Yulia Navalny speaks at the Munich Security Conference after hearing of her husband’s death. Picture: AFP

Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov said ­Navalny’s death was “murder” and that he was “tortured and tormented” for all of the three years he spent in prison.

The last post on Navalny’s Telegram channel, which he managed through his lawyers and team in exile, was a tribute to his wife posted on Valentine’s Day.

AFP