Yulia Navalnaya has accused the Russian president of making a mockery of Christianity as authorities refuse to hand over the remains to the family.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has accused President Vladimir Putin of mocking Orthodox Christian values and “torturing” his body, calling on Russian authorities to release his body for burial. requested extradition.
“Please give us my husband's body,” Navalnaya said in a video released Saturday, adding that she wanted to give him a traditional Orthodox funeral.
“You tortured him alive and continue to torture him now. You are mocking the bodies of the dead,” she said in a message to Putin.
Navalny, a prominent opponent of President Vladimir Putin, died last week in a remote high-security penal colony in the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism.
Authorities say he died of natural causes. They refused to release his remains to his family even after nine days.
Mr Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said investigators were pressuring him to bury her son “in secret” in a private ceremony without mourners.
Officials reportedly told him that his request should be complied with because Navalny's body was already decomposing.
Navalny's aides said authorities had threatened to bury him in the prison where he died unless his family agreed to the terms.
“They want to take me to a new grave at the end of the cemetery and say, 'Here lies your son,'” the mother said in a video posted on YouTube Thursday. “I don't agree with that.”
“How deep will it sink?”
“A true Christian would never do what Putin is currently doing with Alexei's body,” the widow said in the video, questioning Putin's often professed Christian faith.
“What are you going to do with his corpse? How far are you willing to go to make fun of the man you killed?” she asked, adding, “We already know that Putin's faith is false.” But now I see it more clearly than ever.”
The Russian leader is frequently photographed immersing himself in ice water in churches to celebrate Epiphany and visiting Russia's holy sites. He has promoted what he calls “traditional values,” without which “society would deteriorate,” and has touted his closeness to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned allegations that Putin was involved in Navalny's death, even by world leaders, calling them “totally baseless and irreverent accusations about the Russian head of state.” Ta.
Musician Nadia Tolokonnikova, who became widely known after participating in a protest with her band Pussy Riot inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 2012 and spending nearly two years in prison, is a Putin He released a video accusing the president of hypocrisy.
“We were imprisoned for allegedly trampling on traditional values. But I want to thank you, President Putin, and your officials and others who pray for all the murders you commit every day, every year. “No one tramples on traditional Russian values more than priests,” said Tolokonnikova, who lives abroad. “President Putin, have a conscience and give the body of your son to his mother.”
Tolokonnikova was one of several cultural icons to release a video calling on Russian authorities to return Navalny's body to his family.
Critics say authorities are concerned that the funeral could become a major public show of support for the opposition leader.
The funeral of Evgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Mercenaries, Putin's ally-turned-rival who died last August, was organized in secret, with his body buried in a St. Petersburg suburb away from the media.
Russian media devoted little space to news of Navalny's death, but people took to the streets in cities across the country to pay their respects to the opposition leader. Police arrested at least 400 people in the first 24 hours after news of his death, according to protest monitoring group OVD-Info.
