Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s widow has accused the Russian government of hiding his body to cover up his murder.
In a video statement on Monday, February 19, Yulia Navalnaya accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband with a Novichok nerve agent, and subsequently ‘hiding’ his body to ensure traces of the nerve agent disappear.
Navalnaya vowed to name those involved in his death and said he was killed because Putin “couldn’t break him”.
Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh, said that his 69-year-old mother and lawyers were told that Russian investigators have not yet established the cause of Alexei Navalny’s death and it is unclear how long it will take for official conclusions to be made.
Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said.
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, was told on Saturday at the prison colony that he had perished from “sudden death syndrome”, a vague term for different heart conditions that end in death, according to Navalny’s team.
“The cause of death is ‘undetermined’,” Yarmysh said, adding that the Russian authorities were lying and stalling.
His mother and lawyers were not allowed into the morgue on Monday in the Arctic town near the prison colony where the authorities said he dropped dead, Yarmysh added.
“Asked if Alexei’s body was there, the staff did not answer,” said Yarmysh.
