They Tell me that if I Don’t Agree to a Secret Funeral They will do Something With my Son’s body - Navalny's Mother

“I recently left the building of the Investigative Committee of the city of Salekhard. I spent almost a day there alone, with investigators and forensics. The lawyer was only allowed in this afternoon.

Yesterday evening they secretly took me to the morgue, where they showed me Alexei. Investigators say they know the cause of death. They have all the medical and legal documents that I saw ready, and I signed the death certificate. According to the law, Alexei's body should have been handed over immediately, but this has not been done so far. Instead, they are blackmailing me, giving me conditions - where, when, and how to bury Alexei. This is illegal.

In my presence, they receive orders from the Kremlin or the central office of the Investigative Committee. They want it to happen secretly, without saying goodbye. They want to take me to a new grave on the edge of the cemetery and say, “Here lies your son.”

I don't agree. I want those for whom Alexei is dear, for whom his death was a personal tragedy, to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him.

I am making this video because they started threatening me: they look me in the eyes and tell me that if I don't agree to a secret burial, they will do something to my son's body. Investigator Voropaev told me openly: “Time is not on your side, the corpse is rotting.” I don't want special conditions, I just want everything to happen according to the law. I demand that my son's body be given to me immediately,” Ludmila Navalnaya says in the video.

According to Russian legislation, the body should be handed over to the relatives within two days from the moment of determining the cause of death.

On February 16, the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District reported that after a walk in Correctional Colony No. 3, Alexei Navalny felt ill and almost immediately lost consciousness. "All the necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, but they did not bring positive results. Emergency doctors confirmed the convict's death. The causes of death are being determined," the agency announced. The source of the propaganda channel Russia Today named a blood clot as the cause of death.

On the morning of January 17, Ludmila Navalnaya arrived at Kharp Colony. There she was told that her son had died of “sudden death syndrome”.

The opposition politician was 47 years old. He was serving his sentence in the special regime colony Polar Wolf, which is located in the settlement of Kharp, on the Yamal Peninsula, in Siberia.