Russian authorities extend a probe into Navalny’s death as allies speak of cover-up

Woman cries as she pays tribute to Navalny

The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny yesterday was denied access to a morgue where his body was believed to be kept after his death in an Arctic penal colony, and Navalny’s allies accused authorities of trying to hide evidence.

Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said that the Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, informed Lyudmila Navalnaya that the cause of her son’s death remained unknown and that the official probe had been extended. “They lie, buy time for themselves and do not even hide it,” Yarmysh posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Many world leaders blamed President Vladimir Putin and his government for Navalny’s death Friday at age 47. Navalny’s team said he was “murdered,” and charged that officials’ refusal to hand over his body was part of a cover-up.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed what he described as “boorish” and “inadmissible” statements by Western leaders who held Putin responsible for Navalny’s death.

“Those statements can’t do any harm to the head of our state, but they certainly aren’t becoming for those who make them,” Peskov said in a call with reporters.

Yarmysh said that Navalny’s 69-year-old mother and his lawyers were not allowed into the morgue in Salekhard on Monday morning. The staff didn’t answer when they asked if the body was there, Yarmysh said.

Asked when Navalny’s body could be handed over to his family, Peskov responded that the Kremlin was not involved in those proceedings, adding that the official probe was continuing in line with the law.

Navalny’s ally Ivan Zhdanov denounced the Russian authorities as “lackeys and liars.” “It’s clear what they are doing now — covering up the traces of their crime,” he wrote Monday.

Navalny’s death has deprived the Russian opposition of its most well-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power. It dealt a devastating blow to many Russians, who had seen Navalny as a hope for political change following his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin.

Nearly 300 people have been detained by police in Russia as they streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repression with flowers and candles to pay tribute to Navalny, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests. The U.S. and British ambassadors also mourned Navalny’s death at a memorial in Moscow.

Authorities cordoned off some of the memorials across the country and were removing flowers at night, but they kept appearing.

Over 50,000 people have submitted requests to the Russian government asking for Navalny’s remains to be handed over to his relatives, OVD-Info said.

Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Navalny felt sick after a walk Friday and became unconscious at the penal colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometers northeast of Moscow. 

Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. 

His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, was in Brussels yesterday and is expected to meet with European Union foreign ministers and other EU officials. VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV