The 47-year-old Putin critic died in an Arctic jail on Friday after more than three years in custody, shocking the West and his followers.
Alexei Navalny supporters accused Russian authorities on Saturday of being “killers” who were “covering their tracks” by refusing to hand over his corpse, as the Kremlin remained silent in the face of Western accusations and a flood of tributes to the late opposition leader, according to news agency AFP. The 47-year-old Putin critic died in an Arctic jail on Friday after more than three years in custody, causing shock and condemnation from the West and his supporters.
His death, which the West blamed on the Kremlin, deprives Russia’s opposition of a leader just a month before elections that are expected to strengthen President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.
According to Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, his mother, Lyudmila, and his advocate were denied access to his corpse when they arrived at the isolated Siberian prison colony where he had been held on Saturday.
“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 stated in a Telegram post.
“They don’t want whatever method they used to kill Alexei to come out,” Yarmysh was quoted as saying by AFP.
Russian police moved quickly across the country on Saturday to disperse small rallies in honor of the Kremlin critic, detaining more than 400 people in 36 towns, according to the OVD-Info rights organization.
After initially denying responsibility, the Kremlin issued no statement on his death on Saturday, despite widespread criticism from Western leaders.
On Saturday, G7 foreign ministers met in Munich and observed a minute of silence for the leader, while US President Joe Biden accused Putin directly. Putin, 71, hasn’t responded.
In the past, when asked about his most vocal opponent, the Russian leader avoided mentioning Navalny’s name.
Yulia Navalnaya, speaking at the Munich Security Conference hours after her husband’s murder, promised that Putin and his entourage would be “punished for everything they have done to our country, to my family, and to my husband”.