Navalny suffered from ‘sudden death syndrome’ and his mother received a statement from a Russian prison.
© Reuters. A view showing the entrance to the IK-3 penal colony in the Karp settlement in Russia’s Yamal-Nenets region, where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced and died the day before.
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KHARP, Russia (Reuters) – Alexei Navalny’s mother was told on Saturday that Russia’s most prominent opposition leader suffered from “sudden death syndrome” and that his body would not be handed over to his family until an investigation was completed. she said
Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, lost consciousness and died last Friday while taking a walk at the “Arctic Wolf” penal colony in Karp, about 1,900 kilometers northeast of Moscow. He has been sentenced, the prison said.
Western leaders, led by U.S. President Joe Biden, saluted Navalny’s courage and accused President Vladimir Putin of responsibility for the death, without providing evidence. Britain said there would be consequences for Russia.
The Kremlin said the West’s response was unacceptable and “absolutely violent.” President Putin has not yet commented on Navalny’s death.
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, 69, braved arctic temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday to visit the penal camp where her son died.
Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, told Reuters she had received an official death notice stating the time of her death at 2:17pm local time (09:17 GMT) on February 16.
“This morning, when Alexei’s lawyer and mother arrived at the colony, they were told that the cause of Navalny’s death was sudden death syndrome,” Ivan Zhdanov, who heads Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, said on social media platform X.
“Sudden death syndrome” is an ambiguous term that refers to a variety of cardiac syndromes that result in sudden cardiac arrest and death.
It is also unclear where Navalny’s body is, his team said. His mother said her body was taken to Salekhard, a town near the prison, but when she arrived at the morgue she was told it was closed.
navy body
When contacted by Navalny’s lawyer, the morgue said it did not have Navalny’s body. Yarmysh said:
They were later told by officials that the body would not be handed over until the investigation was complete, but were previously told that the investigation had found no signs of crime.
“Currently we do not have access to the body and we do not know for sure where it is,” Yarmysh said in an interview. “We demand that the Russian authorities immediately hand over Alexei’s body to his family.”
Salekhard’s only morgue worker told Reuters that Navalny’s body had not arrived.
The death of Navalny, a former lawyer, has lost one of the most charismatic and courageous leaders in Russia’s disparate opposition as Putin prepares for elections that will keep Navalny, a former KGB spy, in power until at least 2030.
Navalny’s supporters, including in the West, have cast him as a Russian version of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela who will one day walk free and lead the country.
But some Russians have dismissed such views as a classic case of wishful thinking, pointing to opinion polls showing that most Russians oppose Putin and that he is far more popular.
Russian authorities consider Navalny and his supporters to be extremists with links to the CIA’s intelligence agency seeking to destabilize Russia. Navalny has always dismissed accusations that he is a CIA asset.
despair and indifference
Some Russians laid flowers in Moscow and other Russian cities in Navalny’s honor, but hundreds of flowers and candles were removed overnight in black bags.
Dozens of roses and carnations remained in soft snow Saturday at a monument honoring victims of Soviet repression, nestled in the shadow of the former KGB headquarters on Lubyanka Square in central Moscow.
Vladimir Nikitin, 36, is known as the Solovetsky Stone, which comes from the island of the same name in the White Sea where one of the first “Gulag” forced labor camps was established by the Bolsheviks in 1923. ) was alone placing carnations.
“Navalny’s death is terrible. Hopes are shattered,” Nikitin said. “Navalny was a very serious and brave man. Now he is no longer with us. He told the truth. It was very dangerous, because some people did not like the truth.”
At the “Wall of Sorrow” memorial on a street named after Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, some Russians placed flowers next to a photo of Navalny. “We will not forget and we will not forgive,” one message read.
The OVD-Info protest monitoring group said more than 270 people had been arrested at rallies and memorial services for Navalny across Russia since his death was announced.
Putin’s opponents say Navalny’s death shows how dangerous Putin’s Russia has become in the 32 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which brought hope for a better future.
“Aleksey is not dead. He was murdered,” Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesman, said. She said his vision will continue.
“We have lost our leader, but we have not lost our ideas and beliefs.”
