The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother, according to one of his senior aides.
In a post on Telegram, Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, thanked “everyone” who urged Russian authorities to return Navalny’s body.
It followed his widow Yulia Navalnaya accusing Vladimir Putin of “torturing” him.
She said in a video message: “You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead.”
Navalny, 47, died on February 16 in an Arctic penal colony in mysterious circumstances. A Russian medical report points to natural causes as the reason for his death.
Prominent Russians released videos calling on authorities to release the body and Western nations have hit Russia with more sanctions as punishment for Navalny’s death as well as for the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.
