An ally of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Friday that Russian authorities have given his mother a deadline to agree to forgo a public funeral or else they'll bury him on prison grounds.
Investigators gave Lyudmila Navalnaya three hours to accept a proposal for a private funeral outside the public eye, Navalny's close associate Ivan Zhdanov said on social media, another twist in the almost weeklong standoff with the authorities to retrieve the politician's body.
Navalnaya is refusing to continue negotiations and demanding that authorities follow the law and hand over the body within 48 hours of determining the cause of death, which would be today, Zhdanov said. She also has filed a complaint accusing authorities of desecrating the body, he said.
Navalny, 47, Russia's most well-known opposition politician, unexpectedly died Feb. 16 in an Arctic penal colony, prompting hundreds of Russians across the country to stream to impromptu memorials with flowers and candles. Russian authorities have detained scores of people as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy for President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe before the presidential election he is almost certain to win.
Navalny's mother and lawyers have been trying to retrieve his body since late last week, drawing support in those efforts from prominent Russians.
Lyudmila Navalnaya said Thursday that investigators allowed her to see her son's body in the morgue in the Arctic city of Salekhard. She said she repeated her demand to have Navalny's body returned to her and protested what she described as authorities trying to force her to agree to a secret burial. "They want to do it secretly without a mourning ceremony," she said.
Navalny's spokesman, Kira Yarmysh, said on X, formerly Twitter, that Navalnaya was shown a medical certificate stating that the 47-year-old politician died of "natural causes." Yarmysh didn't specify what those were.
Posting on social media, prominent public figures have appealed directly to Putin to demand that he return Navalny's body to his family.
"Just give Lyudmila her son," Nobel Prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov said, adding, "It's awkward to talk about this in a country that still considers itself Christian."
Nadya Tolokonnikova, who became widely known after spending nearly two years in prison for taking part in a 2012 protest with the band Pussy Riot inside Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, also released a video.
"We were imprisoned for allegedly trampling on traditional values. But no one tramples on traditional Russian values more than you, Putin, your officials and your priests who pray for all the murder that you do, year after year, day after day," Tolokonnikova said.
"Putin, have a conscience, give his mother the body of her son," she added.
Ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov said he "firmly requests" that authorities return "the body of the murdered Alexei Navalny to his mother."
Navalny's mother has filed a lawsuit at a court in Salekhard contesting officials' refusal to release her son's body. A closed hearing has been scheduled for March 4.
In a video Monday, Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin of killing her husband and alleged that the refusal to release his body was part of a cover-up.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations, calling them "absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state."
On Friday, Zhdanov announced a reward of more than $50,000 for "comprehensive information" about what happened to Navalny.
A candle and flower are placed to pay tribute to Alexei Navalny at the monument, a large boulder from the Solovetsky islands, where the first camp of the Gulag political prison system was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. Russians across the vast country streamed to ad-hoc memorials with flowers and candles to pay tribute to Alexei Navalny, the most famous Russian opposition leader and the Kremlin's fiercest critic. Russian officials reported that Navalny, 47, died in prison on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
In this grab taken from video provided by the Navalny Team on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny's mother Lyudmila Navalnaya speaks during a video statement from the Arctic city of Salekhard, 1937 km (1211 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia. The mother of Russia's top opposition leader Alexei Navalny says that investigators conducting a probe into her son's death have resorted to blackmail to try to persuade her to agree to his secret burial outside the public eye. (Navalny Team via AP)
In this grab taken from video provided by the Navalny Team on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny's mother Lyudmila Navalnaya speaks during a video statement from the Arctic city of Salekhard, 1937 km (1211 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia. The mother of Russia's top opposition leader Alexei Navalny says that investigators conducting a probe into her son's death have resorted to blackmail to try to persuade her to agree to his secret burial outside the public eye. (Navalny Team via AP)
FILE Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, right, embraces his wife Yulia, as he is released by a court in Kirov, Russia on Friday, July 19, 2013. Navalny received several prison sentences during his life, including the last one which sentenced him to 19 years behind bars. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, File)
A woman pays tribute to Alexei Navalny at the monument, a large boulder from the Solovetsky islands, where the first camp of the Gulag political prison system was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. Russians across the vast country streamed to ad-hoc memorials with flowers and candles to pay tribute to Alexei Navalny, the most famous Russian opposition leader and the Kremlin's fiercest critic. Russian officials reported that Navalny, 47, died in prison on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)