RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES HAVE threatened to bury the body of political dissident Alexei Navalny at the Arctic prison where he died last Friday unless his mother agrees to a private funeral, according to Navalny’s spokesperson. 

“An investigator called Alexey’s mother an hour ago and gave her an ultimatum,” Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 

“Either she agrees to a secret funeral without a public farewell within 3 hours, or Alexey will be buried in the colony. She refused to negotiate with the IC, as they are not authorised to decide how and where her son should be buried.”

Yarmysh said that Navalny’s mother is “demanding compliance with the law, according to which investigators are obliged to hand over the body within two days of establishing the cause of death. According to the medical documents she signed, these two days expire tomorrow”. 

Navalny’s mother has insisted that authorities “allow the funeral and memorial service to take place in accordance with normal practice”, Yarmysh said.

An investigator called Alexey’s mother an hour ago and gave her an ultimatum. Either she agrees to a secret funeral without a public farewell within 3 hours, or Alexey will be buried in the colony. She refused to negotiate with the IC, as they are not authorised to decide how and…

— Кира Ярмыш (@Kira_Yarmysh) February 23, 2024

Alexei Navalny was the most prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and was the victim of a poisoning while returning to Russia from exile in 2020. He was taken to a hospital in Berlin for treatment, where he was put into an induced coma.

After recovering, Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately arrested on the grounds that his trip to Berlin was a breach of parole. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison on extremism charges. 

Navalny died after spending more than three years behind bars, sparking protests and mass arrests across Russia. 

The prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region, in North-Western Russia, said in a statement that Navalny “felt bad after a walk” and almost immediately lost consciousness.

Navalny’s supporters, as well as politicians around the world including Tánaiste Micheál Martin, have blamed Putin for his death.

Vladimir Putin has made no public comment on Navalny’s death.