Navalny's mother says she was victim of “blackmail” to give her son a “secret” burial

In the video, Navalnaya said Russian authorities “threatened” her into agreeing to a “secret” funeral, or they would “do something with” Navalny's body.

“They want this [funeral] To be done in secret without farewell. They want me to go to the grave and to a new grave: here is my son. I don't agree with that,” Lyudmila says in a video shared on YouTube.

Navalnaya says she was “secretly” taken to a morgue in the Russian city of Salekhard on Wednesday, where she had access to Navalny's body. The Russian protester's mother said authorities said they knew the cause of death and had “all the medical and legal documents”.

This Thursday, Navalny's team indicated on the death certificate that the Russian opposition leader died of natural causes.

Alexei Navalny died last Friday, and since Saturday the Russian dissident's mother has been trying to access her son's body. On Tuesday, Lyudmila demanded that Vladimir Putin give her son a “humane” burial.

“Vladimir Putin, I'm begging you. It's up to you to solve this problem. I'll finally let you see my son,” Alexey asked Navalny's mother in a video message posted on the X social network.

On Tuesday, Russian authorities said the body of an opponent of Vladimir Putin would not be released to his family for the next two weeks, arguing that it would take 14 days for a “medical forensics” investigation to be carried out.

Navalny died on February 16 in a penal colony in the Arctic, where he had served 19 years in prison. The 47-year-old prominent opponent of the Russian regime died of “sudden death syndrome,” according to Russian officials.