Navalny's mother to Putin: 'Let me finally see my son'

Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of dead Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, demanded on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin hand over her son's body so she could bury him.

Navalny, 47, fell unconscious and died suddenly on Friday after a walk at the "Polar Wolf" penal colony above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said.

Speaking in a video filmed in front of the prison as snowflakes swirled in the air, his mother, dressed in black, complained she did not even know where her son's body was and demanded Putin give the order to release it.

"For a fifth day I cannot see him, they aren't giving me his body and don't even tell me where he is," Navalnaya said in the message, which was broadcast on the Navalny Live YouTube channel.

"I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin. Resolving this issue depends on you alone. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei's body be released immediately so that I can bury him humanely."

She also sent an official letter to Putin with the same demand.

Navalny's allies have cited a Russian investigator as saying that the authorities need at least 14 days to conduct various chemical tests on his body and cannot therefore hand his corpse over yet.

The West and Navalny's supporters say Putin is responsible for Navalny's death. France and Germany each summoned their Russian ambassadors over the issue.

The Kremlin has denied involvement and said that Western claims that Putin was responsible were unacceptable. Putin has made no public comment.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, called for an international investigation of Navalny's death, but Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin would not agree to such a demand.

On Monday, Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, released a video accusing Putin of killing her husband and alleged the refusal to release his body was part of a cover-up.

"They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably," she said.

Navalny's death has deprived the Russian opposition of its most well-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power. Many Russians had seen Navalny as a rare hope for political change amid Putin's unrelenting crackdown on the opposition.

In her Monday video, Navalnaya vowed to continue Navalny's fight against the Kremlin. On Tuesday, her account on X, where she had posted the video, was briefly suspended by the platform then reinstated without explanation.