Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s body returned to his mother, spokesperson says

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s body has been returned to his mother, his spokesperson said Saturday.

Navalny, 47, died in prison, the country’s prison service said last week. He was serving a combined 30 ½-year jail sentence when he died.

“Huge gratitude to everyone who has been demanding this with us. So far Lyudmila Ivanovna is in Salekhard,” Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmys, said in a translated post on X. “We don’t know whether the authorities will interfere with carrying them out the way the family wants and as Alexey deserves. We will provide information as it becomes available.”

Navalny was poisoned with a military nerve agent while on a business trip in Russia in 2020 — an attempt on his life that he blamed directly on Russian President Vladimir Putin. He spent his final years behind bars as Putin focused on his war in Ukraine. 

Russia’s Federal Prison Service had said that Navalny died after feeling ill following a walk. His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, was quoted by a Russian newspaper saying that he was “alive, healthy and happy” the last time she saw him. 

News of Navalny’s death, which comes as the Kremlin is preparing to orchestrate another election victory for Putin in March, caused outrage from Western leaders who blamed Putin.

President Joe Biden said in a White House speech that the U.S. did not know what happened to Navalny, but that “there is no doubt” his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.” 

Vice President Kamala Harris said the death was “a further sign of Putin’s brutality,” while Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said in a post on X that Navalny “was just brutally murdered by the Kremlin.”

The Kremlin responded, saying the allegations were “absolutely rabid statements.”

Plans for a funeral have not been announced.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.