RIGA, Latvia — 3 days after the surprising demise of Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s maximum ambitious rival, the site of his physique was once nonetheless unclear on Monday, and his mom was once once more rebuffed through morgue officers within the Arctic the town of Salekhard, 33 miles from the jail colony the place he died, Navalny’s press secretary stated.Navalny’s grieving circle of relatives and political staff, who demanded the go back of his stays on Saturday, have confronted a longer, nearly surreal fight to get better his physique, and even to ascertain its location — with Russian officers reputedly decided to impede any impartial investigation into the reason for demise and extend a funeral.However as Russian government endured to torment Navalny’s circle of relatives even after his demise at age 47, his spouse, Yulia Navalnaya, stated she would proceed her husband’s campaign in opposition to the Putin regime. Navalnaya was once in Brussels on Monday to deal with Eu Union international ministers who invited her in a display of cohesion.Who was once Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition chief and Putin critic?In a video commentary posted on YouTube on Monday, Navalnaya proclaimed: “I will be able to proceed the paintings of Alexei Navalny.”“A loose, non violent, glad Russia, a fantastic Russia of the long run, which my husband dreamed of such a lot — that’s what we want,” Navalnaya stated. “I need to reside on this Russia. I would like our kids to reside in it. I need to construct it with you.”“I must now not were on this place,” Navalnaya, clad in black, added, her voice now and again trembling. “I must now not be recording this video. A special individual must be in my position.” She accused Putin of murdering her husband. “Putin didn’t most effective homicide the individual, Alexei Navalny. He sought after, along side him, to kill out hope, our freedom, our long term,” she stated.Navalny’s mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, has now not been allowed to look his physique. She traveled on Saturday to the Polar Wolf jail simply above the Arctic Circle within the Yamalo-Nenets area, the place he died Friday, and to the native morgue. Jail officers gave her a paper appearing a time of demise — 2:17 p.m. — however morgue officers denied they’d the physique.Even after his demise, Russian government goal to repress fortify for NavalnyAfter the Russian newspaper in exile Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that Navalny’s physique was once certainly on the morgue in Salekhard, the regional capital, Lyudmila Navalnaya and Navalny’s legal professionals went to the morgue early Monday morning and have been once more denied get admission to.“They weren’t allowed to head in. Some of the legal professionals was once actually driven out,” Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, who lives out of doors Russia, posted on X. “When the team of workers was once requested if Alexei’s physique was once there, they didn’t resolution.”Individuals of Navalny’s staff have referred to as his demise a “homicide,” whilst many global leaders, together with President Biden, have stated Putin bears accountability for his demise.President Biden spoke from the White Area on reviews that Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny had died on Feb. 16. (Video: The Washington Publish)Amid fears that the actual explanation for demise might by no means be recognized, Yarmysh stated officers from Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles primary crimes, had prolonged their inquiry into the subject.“They don’t say how lengthy it is going to take. The reason for demise remains to be ‘unknown.’ They lie, purchase time for themselves and don’t even conceal it,” Yarmysh stated.On Saturday, Lyudmila Navalnaya was once to start with advised through jail officers that her son died of “surprising demise syndrome,” with Investigative Committee officers later providing contradictory accounts, mentioning that the purpose was once unknown.Putin, who has lengthy made some extent of just about by no means uttering Navalny’s title, has made no remark concerning the demise of the activist, who was once considered for greater than a decade because the Russian chief’s maximum charismatic opponent.Navalny was once barred from working within the 2018 Russian presidential election in opposition to Putin, after his all of a sudden sturdy appearing within the 2013 Moscow mayoral race.Vladimir Putin, driving top prior to Navalny’s demise, turns out unstoppableNavalny confronted a lot of felony fees, which he and lots of impartial analysts stated have been trumped up for political retribution, and in August 2020, he was once poisoned with a chemical nerve agent. Navalny later teamed up with Bellingcat, the investigative information staff, and controlled to turn out {that a} staff of brokers from Russia’s Federal Safety Provider, or FSB, was once chargeable for monitoring and poisoning him. They even recognized most of the brokers through title. Navalny referred to as one and tricked him into confessing his position within the failed assassination try.Bellingcat breaks tales that newsrooms envy — the use of strategies newsrooms avoidPutin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, stated Monday that Putin had made no response to Navalny’s demise and that the Kremlin was once “now not engaged” within the subject of the go back of his physique to his circle of relatives. Requested whether or not the Kremlin was once taken with making sure a radical investigation into the reason for demise, Peskov spoke back: “The ones movements which can be stipulated through Russian law are being performed.”“The investigation into Navalny’s demise is underway, and the important movements are being performed,” he stated. “However the effects have now not but been made public. It isn’t recognized about them.”Peskov additionally criticized global leaders who stated the Russian president was once chargeable for Navalny’s demise, calling it “completely unacceptable to make such blatantly boorish statements.”Tens of 1000’s of Russians have signed appeals for Navalny’s physique to be returned to his circle of relatives and for them to be granted get admission to to the video-camera and body-camera pictures from the jail and its team of workers.‘Navalny’ director blames Putin for opposition chief’s ‘homicide’Greater than 50,000 signed a petition arranged through OVD-Data, a criminal rights staff, to the Investigative Committee difficult the go back of his physique to the circle of relatives, and greater than 20,500 folks signed a petition fastened through Nobel Peace Prize laureate and longtime Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov, difficult that the circle of relatives be granted get admission to to the surveillance pictures from the jail.Unbiased Russian media outlet Mediazona printed video Sunday of a convoy, together with two police vehicles and a jail van, touring on Friday evening from the Polar Wolf jail colony towards Salekhard, in all probability wearing Navalny’s physique.Fleeing Putin’s wartime crackdown, Russian newshounds construct media hubs in exileNovaya Gazeta Europe, quoting an ambulance paramedic, reported that Navalny’s physique was once to start with taken to a district health center in Salekhard, as an alternative of at once to the morgue as is commonplace in terms of jail deaths. The physique was once later transferred to the morgue, in keeping with the paramedic.Natalia Abbakumova and Mary Ilyushina in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this file.
