Key Points
- Navalny's mother had been demanding that authorities hand over his body to be buried in a way that will allow his friends, family and supporters to pay their respects.
- Navalny's family and supporters have accused Putin of having him killed, an accusation that the Kremlin has rejected.
- Putin makes a point of never mentioning Navalny's name, and has not commented on the matter in public since his death.
The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died suddenly and unexpectedly in prison last week, has been handed over to his mother, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh says.
Yarmysh said in an online post on Saturday she did not know if the authorities would allow a funeral to be held "the way the family wants and the way Alexei deserves"
Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, made the same announcement on his Telegram account and thanked everyone who had called on Russian authorities to return Navalny's body to his family.
Earlier on Saturday, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of mocking Christianity by trying to force his mother to agree to a secret funeral after his death in an Arctic penal colony.
"Thank you very much. Thanks to everyone who wrote and recorded video messages. You all did what you needed to do. Thank you. Alexei Navalny's body has been given to his mother," Zhdanov wrote.
Navalny, 47, Russia's most well-known opposition politician, unexpectedly died on 16 February in an Arctic penal colony and his family have been fighting for more than a week to have his body returned to them.
Prominent Russians released videos calling on authorities to release the body and some foreign governments hit Russia with more sanctions as punishment for Navalny's death as well as for the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.
Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, is still in Salekhard, Yarmysh said on X.
Lyudmila Navalnaya has been in the Arctic region for more than a week, demanding that Russian authorities return the body of her son to her.
Authorities have detained scores of people as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy for Putin's fiercest foe before the presidential election he is almost certain to win.
Saturday marked nine days since the opposition leader's death, a day when Orthodox Christians hold a memorial service.
People across Russia came out to mark the occasion and honour Navalny's memory by gathering at Orthodox churches, leaving flowers at public monuments or holding one-person protests.
As of Saturday afternoon, at least 27 people had been detained in nine Russian cities for showing support for Navalny, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests.
