Aleksei Navalni’s family confirmed the death of the prominent Russian dissident on Saturday after his mother traveled to the Arctic prison where he died suddenly a day earlier. To the criticism of Western governments, which blamed the death on the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, was added the opposition team, which demanded from exile that Russia “immediately” deliver the body to the family
Ludmila Navalnaya, the politician’s mother, took a plane in the morning that took her from Moscow to Salekhard, the administrative center of the Yamalia Autonomous District, about 1,900 kilometers northeast of the capital. From there he drove to Kharp, 60 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. In that town is the IK-3 penal colony, where the Russian prison service transferred Navalny in December.
The prison, built in the sixties of the last century on a former gulag prison camp, is nicknamed the Polar Wolf because of the harsh living conditions. Especially climates. Yesterday, 30 degrees below zero were recorded in Kharp.
The dissident’s mother received the death certificate from prison officials, Navalni’s aides said.
On the social network X (formerly Twitter), its official spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said that, according to a message from Ludmila Navalnaia, her son died in prison at 2:17 p.m. on February 16 due to “ sudden death syndrome”, which would have taken place after a walk.
Yarmysh denounced the authorities’ lack of cooperation. It was unclear yesterday where Navalny’s body was. In the penal colony they said that they had taken him to the Salekhard morgue, but when they got there, it was closed, the lawyer called on the phone and was informed that Navalni’s body was not there. “Now we don’t have access to the body and we don’t know for sure where it is, and we demand that the Russian authorities immediately hand over the body of Aleksei Navalni to the family,” requested Yarmysh.
Investigators later told the lawyer that the cause of death had not yet been established and that “a new histological examination” would be carried out. Until it is completed, the opponent’s remains will not be delivered. “The results must be made public next week. It is clear that they are lying and doing everything they can to avoid having to hand over the body”, accused the opposition spokeswoman.
Navalny’s associates dispute the official version, and yesterday they accused Putin of his death. “Three and a half years ago, Putin tried to assassinate Aleksei. Yesterday he killed him”, said Yarmysh in a video on YouTube, referring to the poisoning that the opposition leader suffered in Siberia with the nerve agent Novichok.
Western governments accused Putin on Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the accusations as “unacceptable” and asked to wait for the results of the autopsy.
While the Russian authorities remain silent, supporters of the main Russian opposition leader of the last decade have not. On Friday night, scores of Russian citizens began going to memorials against political repression and other monuments where they improvised tributes to Navalny with flowers and portraits.
The police, with megaphones in hand warning that it was illegal to go to unauthorized demonstrations, let it go in most cases and only acted when activists tried to unfurl banners or went beyond the simple act of leaving a bouquet.
But seeing piles of flowers and portraits of the main enemy of the Kremlin is not to the taste of the authorities. In Moscow, the improvised altar that was formed on Friday night at the Solovetsky Stone, next to Lubyanka Square, was removed in the morning in garbage bags.
Yesterday morning, however, there were already a few bouquets of roses. Several police officers were guarding the scene, and police vehicles, including a van for detainees, were parked nearby. Individually and very occasionally, people arrived who silently placed their flowers. “It has been a great shock for me. It was unthinkable. The opposition is left without a relevant figure. There are still leaders, but they don’t have Navalni’s hook”, said Alina, a middle-aged woman, in a low voice.
According to the oenagé OVD-Info, which observes the police action during the protests, until 18.30 yesterday at least 359 people were arrested in 32 cities of the country, the majority in Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
But the little hope that seemed to remain in the opposition may have been lost with Navalni’s death. “There is a lot of apathy. In my environment, half the people are clearly in favor of Putin. On the other, the majority has resigned and due to the influence of the military campaign in Ukraine they say it is time to be patriotic”, says another supporter, a young man named Àlex.
Sentenced to three decades in prison for several consecutive convictions, Navalni had no chance to take part in the presidential elections that will be held in a month’s time and will undoubtedly be won again by the current head of the Kremlin. But even from prison he has taken part in the political struggle. In December, he called on Russian citizens not to vote for Putin and to support any other candidate.
