Russian authorities have warned the mother of Aleksei A. Navalny that if she does not agree to a secret funeral, the late opposition activist will be buried by the state in prison, according to Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, Mr Navalny’s mother, was given three hours to agree to the ultimatum but refused to negotiate, arguing that Russian authorities had no legal right to decide the time and place of her son’s burial, according to the Mr. Navalny’s representative, Kira. Yarmysh.
“It requires compliance with the law, which requires coroners to hand over the body within two days of the cause of death being determined,” Ms Yarmysh said in a statement released to X. The two days they expire on Saturday.
Mr Navalny’s mother “insists that the authorities allow a funeral and memorial service to take place in accordance with tradition”, Ms Yarmysh added. It was unclear whether Russian authorities proceeded to bury the body on Friday after the deadline for the ultimatum had passed.
The ultimatum was the latest twist in a grisly saga in which Mr Navalny’s 69-year-old mother spent nearly a week trying to retrieve her son’s body from an Arctic morgue in Russia, near the prison where he died.
The Kremlin has long portrayed Mr. Navalny as insignificant, with President Vladimir V. Putin avoiding even saying his name in public. But the fight over his body suggests otherwise, as Russian authorities have shown a strong sensitivity to the possibility of a public funeral amid an all-out crackdown on dissent.
Russian authorities have arrested or detained hundreds of Mr Navalny’s supporters in recent days, in some cases simply for laying flowers at memorials to his death.
News of the ultimatum to his mother came as the United States announced a new round of sanctions against Moscow that designated three Russian criminal officials to oversee the prison above the Arctic Circle where Mr Navalny was being held.
The sanctions came a day after President Biden met with Mr Navalny’s widow and daughter in California and praised the Kremlin critic’s “legacy of courage”.
After Mr Navalny’s death was announced on February 16, his mother had to wait five days before Russian authorities showed her the body. On Thursday, she was given a medical report claiming she died of natural causes.
At that point, Ms Navalnaya accused the authorities of “blackmailing” her and said they were refusing to release her son’s remains until she agreed to a secret funeral without a public farewell.
In response, he filed a complaint with Russian authorities against the investigator handling the case, seeking charges under Article 244 of Russia’s criminal code, which prohibits desecration of a dead person, Mr Navalny’s anti-corruption group said on Friday. .
The Russian authorities handling the post-mortem on Mr Navalny’s body are part of the same security apparatus that the US government says used the Novichok nerve agent to poison Mr Navalny in 2020.
The controversy over the body has led to an outpouring of support for Mr Navalny’s family from celebrities, who have released videos demanding Russian authorities hand over his remains to his mother without conditions or delay.
Ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov, Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich and director Andrei Zvyagintsev were among those who released video messages.
“It is uncomfortable to even discuss this in a country that so far still considers itself Christian,” Dmitry A. Muratov, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian editor, said in a video.
“Just hand it over — and that’s it,” he added.
Mr Navalny was seen on video in seemingly good spirits the day before Russian authorities announced his death. In footage from a criminal court hearing, Mr Navalny appears to joke in comments to the judge overseeing one of the many criminal cases brought against him by the Russian government.
Mr Navalny’s wife and aides accused Mr Putin of killing him, if not outright then by imprisoning him for three years in inhumane conditions. Since his most recent sentence began in 2021, he has spent more than a quarter of his time in solitary “punishment cells” known for their freezing temperatures.
Moscow has rejected accusations of Mr Putin’s guilt, accusing Western leaders of jumping to conclusions and displaying anti-Russian bias.
Mr Putin has made no mention of Mr Navalny in the week since Russian prison authorities announced the death. He has made several public appearances, including a publicity stunt on Thursday in which he took a ride on a nuclear-capable strategic bomber.
The head of Mr Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, who has fled Russia, released a video on Friday aimed directly at members of the Russian security services.
“You can’t argue that there are basic universal human principles — that you can’t blackmail a mother with her child’s body while telling her terrible things can happen,” Mr Zhdanov said. “That goes against your duty. Those who do this are extremely disgusting.”
He accused Russian authorities of doing so on Mr Putin’s orders.
“They are blackmailing a woman who lost the most precious thing she had – her son,” he said.
He repeated an appeal for information on the circumstances of Mr Navalny’s death and promised a reward for anyone with important information.
