The widow of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny has promised this Monday to carry on her husband’s fight against the Kremlin, while Russian authorities continue to refuse to hand over his body, arguing that the investigation into the causes of his death is still ongoing.
“I will continue Navalny’s work and I call you to stand by my side. Alexei loved Russia more than anything in the world,” Yulia Navalnaya stated in a video released on YouTube. “In my place there should be someone else, but that person was murdered by Vladimir Putin. Putin killed my husband three days ago,” she added. “Putin did not just kill the person, Alexei Navalny, but also our hopes, our freedom, our future,” she emphasized.
During her message, Navalny’s wife recalled that she last saw him two years ago and urged listeners to imagine what it is like to spend nearly 300 days in punitive cells, “a six- to seven-meter-square room with nothing more than a stool, a sink, a hole in the floor instead of a toilet, and a bed pushed against the wall so you cannot lie down.”
Next revelations
“My husband could not be broken, and that is precisely why Putin killed him. In a dishonorable, cowardly way, without looking him in the eye or naming his name,” Yulia stressed, before noting that the late opposition leaders’ allies know “exactly why Putin decided to kill Alexei three days ago” and will soon make it public. “We will name the surnames and show faces of the people involved,” she announced.
Meanwhile, Navalny’s family continues to wait for a funeral date. Russian authorities say they are still investigating the death and do not know when the inquiry will end. Navalny’s team spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, said on social media this Monday that the investigation would be extended “indefinitely” and that the forensic experts do not know the exact cause of death.
Both Yarmish and other opposition figures accuse these delays of being attempts to “buy time for themselves,” a claim she says they “don’t even attempt to hide.” Early Monday morning, Navalny’s family reportedly appeared at the morgue with their lawyers, but access to the body was denied and its location could not be confirmed.
In this context, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told his daily telephone briefing that “the investigation is still underway, all necessary actions are being carried out.” “For now, the results of this investigation have not been made public,” he added, and emphasized that the delivery or not of Navalny’s body to his family “is not a matter” for the Kremlin.
Still, Peskov did not hesitate to label the statements by Western leaders that blame the Kremlin for the opposition leader’s death as “rude” and “unacceptable.” “Those statements, of course, cannot harm our head of state, but they certainly do not honor those who make them,” he asserted.
Independent media outlets such as Novaya Gazeta Europe have indicated that the corpse showed bruising from convulsions, which can occur when a person suffers seizures and is restrained to minimize injuries. Other unverified rumors suggested a blood clot may have caused the death.
Memorials were constrained by authorities as soon as Navalny’s body remained hot. In the early hours of Friday, spontaneous displays of flowers appeared in symbolic city spots, but by nightfall several arrests had begun, and the following day a broader crackdown dismantled memorials, including the one built for Boris Nemtsov, another Putin opponent killed in 2015 in central Moscow.
Another figure denied the chance to honor the late opposition leader was Grigori Mikjov-Vaitenko, the bishop of the Orthodox Apostolic Church. Known in Saint Petersburg for aiding refugees, he announced plans to hold a memorial service for Navalny on his Telegram channel, a move that led to a police detention.