Navalny’s mother urges Putin to release body ‘immediately’ for proper burial

Lyudmila Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny's mother, on Tuesday (Feb 20) urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to hand over her son's body after his death five days ago in an Arctic jail. 

"I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, the solution to the issue depends only on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei's body be released immediately so that I can bury him in a humane way," she said as quoted by news agencies. 

Lyudmila and her son's lawyer visited the "Polar Wolf" IK-3 penal colony in Russia's Arctic north, where Navalny had been held since last year. They travelled over the weekend to take Navalny's body, but they failed as they received contradicting information about its location.  

Also read: Alexei Navalny's wife Yulia's X social media account suspended 

Yulia Navalnaya's response to Kremlin's remarks 

Yulia said on Tuesday that she did not care about the Kremlin's reaction after she accused Putin's administration of being involved in her husband's death. 

"I do not give a damn how the press secretary of a murderer comments on my words," Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue her husband's work, wrote on social media platform X. 

The West has accused Russia of having involvement in the death of Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and staunch critic of Putin. Some have even held Putin directly responsible. 

Also read: Russia's FSB arrests US-Russian woman for alleged treason, funding Ukrainian Army

While reacting to the claims, the Kremlin said the accusations were "unfounded and vulgar". 

"Of course, these are absolutely unfounded and vulgar accusations against the head of the Russian state. But taking into account that Yulia Navalnaya was widowed just days ago, I will not comment," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Yulia had also shared a video which was viewed by millions online, vowing to continue her husband's fight "for the freedom of our country".

A day after she created the account and shared the video message, the X social media site suspended her account. A message on the @Yulia_Navalnaya account page read: "Account suspended. X suspends accounts which violate the X rules." It included a link to the site's rules of use but did not provide a specific reason for the account being suspended. 

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France calls for 'independent' probe 

On Tuesday, France called for an "independent" probe into the death of Navalny after summoning Moscow's envoy.

"France holds the Russian authorities fully responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

France "calls for an independent and in-depth investigation," the ministry said, adding that Russia's ambassador had been summoned on Monday.

"France calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Russia and expresses in particular its deep concern over the critical state of health of opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza," the statement added. 

(With inputs from agencies)