Mother of Navalny claims Russia pressuring her to agree to secret burial after seeing son’s body

The mother of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s top opposition leader who died last week, says she is resisting pressure from the Kremlin to agree to bury her son in secret.

Lyudmila Navalnaya said in a video statement posted to YouTube on Thursday that Russian investigators allowed her to see her son’s body at the morgue in the Arctic city of Salekhard. 

“They blackmail me, they put conditions on me – where, when and how Alexei should be buried. This is illegal,” she said, accusing the Kremlin of giving the orders. 

“They want it done secretly, without a memorial service,” Navalnaya said. “They want to take me to the edge of the cemetery, to a fresh grave and say: here lies your son. I don’t agree with that.”

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Lyudmila Navalnaya, mother of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaks during a video statement from the Arctic city of Salekhard, accusing investigators of blackmail by trying to persuade her to bury her son in secret without a public funeral. (Navalny Team via AP)

Navalnaya accused the Russian investigators of further threatening her over her decision.

“Looking me in the eyes, the investigator say that if I don’t agree to a secret funeral, they will do something with my son’s body,” she said. “The investigator Voropayev openly told me: time is not working for you, the corpse is decomposing.” 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died last week in an Arctic penal colony, according to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The grieving mother reaffirmed that she did not fold to pressure and demanded to receive her son’s body immediately.

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“I don’t want special conditions, I just want everything to be done according to the law,” she said. 

Navalny’s mother already filed a lawsuit at a court in Salekhard contesting officials’ refusal to release her son’s body. A closed-door hearing has been scheduled for March 4. On Tuesday, she appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to release her son’s remains so that she could bury him with dignity.

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Russian officials have said Navalny died Friday after collapsing following a walk at a penal colony in Kharp in northern Russia. The opposition leader’s death comes less than a month before an election that will likely see Putin win another six years in power.

Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and the Associated Press contributed to this report.