Alexey Navalny's mother is shown his body, says Russian authorities are "blackmailing" her to have secret burial

The mother of Russia's top opposition leader Alexey Navalny said Thursday that she has seen her son's body and that she is resisting strong pressure by authorities to agree to a secret burial outside the public eye. Speaking in a video statement from the Arctic city of Salekhard, Lyudmila Navalnaya said investigators have allowed her to see her son's body in the city morgue.

She said she reaffirmed the demand to give Navalny's body to her and protested what she described as authorities trying to force her to agree to a secret burial.

"They are blackmailing me, they are setting conditions where, when and how my son should be buried," she said. "They want it to do it secretly without a mourning ceremony."