"Chemical tests"

Authorities to keep Navalny’s body for another two weeks

A memorial to Navalny in front of the Russian embassy in Vienna(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

According to his team, the Russian authorities intend to keep the body of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in prison, under lock and key for at least another 14 days. The reason given was "chemical tests" to be carried out on the body.

"The investigators have told Alexei's lawyers and mother that they will not release the body," wrote Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh on the X platform on Monday. In another post, she described the announced investigation as an "obvious lie and mockery".

On Monday morning, Alexei's mother Lyudmila Navalnaya and the lawyers were not allowed into the morgue in the northern Russian town of Salekhard. "When asked whether Alexei's body was there, the staff did not answer," Yarmysh told X.

A Navalny memorial in front of the Russian embassy in Vienna(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

Widow Yulia Navalnaya after learning of her husband's death(Bild: AP)

Widow fears cover-up of nerve agent attack
Navalny's widow accused the Russian authorities of withholding her husband's body. The authorities were waiting until there were no more traces of the Novichok nerve agent, Yulia Navalnaya explained in a video message on Monday. She accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband because he had been unable to break Navalny. She said she would continue her husband's work and fight for a free Russia. The widow of the Russian opposition leader was invited to the EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Human rights activists accuse the Russian power apparatus of murder. The prominent anti-corruption campaigner's associates also assumed that Navalny was deliberately killed. US President Joe Biden and other Western politicians also blamed the Kremlin for Navalny's death.