The kin of late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny have been told by Kremlin investigators that his body will not be released for two weeks pending a “chemical examination” — a move that is a “blatant lie,” his rep says.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, Navalny’s mother, was told that her 47-year-old son’s body was needed for the 14-day “examination,” according to Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh — as the mom Tuesday demanded that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin immediately hand over his remains for burial.
“They are hiding Navalny’s body to cover up evidence of a murder,” Yarmysh posted on X on Monday, adding that Moscow’s claim that it needs to perform the exam is “a blatant lie and mockery.”
Yarmysh was echoing the words of Navalny’s widow, Yulia, who has accused Putin and his cohorts of poisoning her activist lawyer husband in prison — and then holding onto his body to allow all traces of the Novichok nerve agent to leave his system.
Navalny famously survived a previous attempt on his life involving the same chemical in 2020, when he drank a poisoned cup of tea at a Siberian airport.
It isn’t clear how long traces of the deadly nerve agent can remain in someone’s system, but at least some should be able to be detected at least a couple of weeks afterward, according to Stefano Costanzi, a chemist at American University in Washington, DC, in an article at the time about Navalny’s 2020 poisoning.
The Kremlin has strenuously denied having anything to do with Navalny’s unexplained death at the brutal “Polar Wolf” penal colony above the Arctic Circle on Friday — and blasted Yulia Navalnaya’s claims as “unfounded and rude.”
Navalny’s 69-year-old mother, who traveled with his lawyers over the weekend to the remote prison where he had been serving a three-decade sentence, said that for the past five days, she has been denied access to her son’s body.
“They don’t even tell me where he is,” Lyudimla Navalnaya, dressed in all black, said in the minute-long video message recorded in front of the snowed-in prison and released Tuesday.
“I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin. Resolving this issue depends on you alone. Let me finally see my son,” the grieving mom said. “I demand that Alexei’s body be released immediately so that I can bury him humanely.”
She also sent an official letter to Russia’s warmongering president with the same demand.
Navalny’s widow Yulia — who has unveiled her plan to continue her dead husband’s struggle against Putin — shared the video on her new X account, which was briefly suspended Tuesday because of what the social media company called “an error.”
“Give back Alexei’s body and let him be buried with dignity,” Yulia wrote in a post.
Navalny’s mother was told that her son succumbed to a “sudden death syndrome” — a vague term for heart-related issues causing death.