An employee of the prison camp beyond the Arctic Circle said that Navalny’s body was in the city of Salekhard for examination, Yarmysch said. Accordingly, the mother was initially unable to identify the body. The city is around 50 kilometers from the prison camp.
Jarmysch said employees of the state investigative committee had picked up the body. “We demand that Alexei Navalny’s body be handed over to the family immediately,” his spokeswoman said. The circumstances of the death remain unclear.
According to Russian authorities, Navalny, who was physically weakened after many days in repeated solitary confinement, collapsed on Friday while walking in the prison camp in freezing temperatures. According to the prison service, attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.
Human rights activists assume murder
Human rights activists accuse the Russian power apparatus of murder. The prominent anti-corruption campaigner’s employees also assumed that Navalny was deliberately killed.
After Navalny’s death, people in Russia continue to mourn the opposition figure despite arrests and pressure from the authorities. There were also numerous arrests on Saturday, for example in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Media in many parts of Russia reported that despite evictions and arrests, fresh flowers continued to be laid, candles were lit and pictures were put up in memory of Navalny.
According to human rights activists, there were more than 100 arrests across the country. The Internet portal ovd.info reported on Saturday morning that more than 60 people had been arrested in St. Petersburg alone since Friday. There were arrests in ten cities, including Moscow, Bryansk and Krasnodar. The civil rights activists also gave legal advice on laying flowers and published the number of a telephone hotline for legal help. Many Russians publicly expressed their anger after Navalny’s death.
Expert: A nuisance for the Kremlin even in the prison camp
“How great the power apparatus’ fear of a dead person is when even laying flowers in his memory is viewed as a crime,” wrote the Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Kremlin-critical newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitri Muratov, on the news channel on Saturday Telegram.
As a globally recognized Russian opposition leader, Navalny embodied the hope for a future after the dictatorship, wrote expert Alexander Baunow for the Carnegie think tank on Saturday. Even in the prison camp, the politician remained a nuisance for the Kremlin. “But the effort itself to get rid of such an irritating figure also shows that the regime is not as confident in itself and its future as it would like to appear.”
Russia’s power apparatus repeatedly uses violence against dissidents. Protests have not been allowed in the country for years.
