VOA News | Friday, February 23, 2024 
Navalny Ally Says Authorities Threaten to Bury Him on Prison Grounds

An ally of the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny said Friday that Russian authorities have given his mother a deadline to agree to forgo a public funeral or else they’ll bury him on prison grounds. Investigators gave Lyudmila Navalnaya three hours to accept a proposal for a private funeral outside the public eye, Navalny’s close associate Ivan Zhdanov said on social media, another twist in the almost weeklong standoff with the authorities to retrieve the politician’s body. Navalnaya is refusing to continue negotiations and demanding that authorities follow the law and hand over the body within 48 hours of determining the cause of death, which would be on Saturday, Zhdanov said. She also has filed a complaint accusing authorities of desecrating the body, he said. “She insists that the authorities allow a funeral and a memorial service to be held according to traditions,” Zhdanov said. Navalny, 47, Russia’s most well-known opposition politician, unexpectedly died on February 16 in an Arctic penal colony, prompting hundreds of Russians across the country to stream to impromptu memorials with flowers and candles. The Russian authorities have detained scores of people as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy…Read more