She continued: “The main thing we can do for Alexei and ourselves is to keep fighting. …We all need to come together in one strong fist and strike down this crazy system.
Opposition activist Alexei Navalny at a protest in Moscow, Russia in 2019.credit: AP
Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation, said on Monday that Navalny's body would not be handed over to his mother for 14 days while a chemical examination was conducted on it, according to a Russian investigator.
Navalny's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said the Investigative Committee, the country's top criminal investigation agency, informed Lyudmila Navalnaya that the official investigation into the death had been extended. “They lie, buy time for themselves and don’t even hide it,” Yarmysh posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
With authorities providing no further information about the death beyond the initial brief statement, many Russians have speculated about what might happen to Navalny. Independent Russian media published reports trying to shed light on his death. Some questioned the official story, but it was not possible to verify their reports.
Navalny's widow met in Brussels on Monday with European Union foreign ministers and other officials. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was considering imposing sanctions on Russia and also called for an independent international investigation into the causes of Navalny's death.
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He said responsibility for Navalny's death lies with “Putin himself, but we can go down to the institutional structure of Russia's prison system” to impose asset freezes and travel bans.
President Joe Biden said Monday that his administration is also considering additional sanctions on Russia.
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski described Navalnaya as “very respectful, very calm” and urged his EU counterparts to act on Navalnaya's request that the bloc impose sanctions on more Putin supporters, beyond the oligarchs and other senior Russian officials already targeted.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized the accusations made by Western leaders, describing them as “crude” and “unacceptable.”
“These statements cannot cause any harm to our head of state, but they certainly do not suit those who issue them,” Peskov said in a call with reporters.
Yarmysh said Navalny's 69-year-old mother and his lawyer were not allowed into the morgue in Salekhard, the capital of the Arctic Yamalo-Nenets region, on Monday morning. Yarmysh said the employees did not answer when they asked if the body was there.
In response to a question about when Navalny's body could be handed over to his family, Peskov replied that the Kremlin was not involved in those proceedings, adding that the official investigation was continuing in line with the law.
Observers said the law allows authorities to keep a body for a long period if the investigation is ongoing and prevents any requests for an independent forensic study.
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Navalny's ally Ivan Zhdanov denounced the Russian authorities as “henchmen and liars.”
“It is clear that what they are doing now is covering up the traces of their crime,” he wrote on Monday.
Since Navalny's death, police in Russia have detained nearly 400 people as they flocked to memorials and memorials to victims of political repression with flowers and candles to honor Navalny, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political events. Arrests.
The US and British ambassadors also mourned Navalny's death at a memorial service in Moscow.
The authorities cordoned off some memorials across the country and removed flowers at night, but they continued to appear.
Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnyn, in Brussels.credit: AP
OVD-Info said that more than 50,000 people have submitted requests to the Russian government demanding that Navalny's remains be handed over to his relatives.
Russia's Federal Prison Service said Navalny felt ill after his outing on Friday and lost consciousness in the penal colony where he was being held. An ambulance arrived, but he could not be revived, the service said.
After the recent ruling, which sentenced him to 19 years in prison, Navalny said he understood that he was “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of this regime.”
“By killing Alexei, Putin killed half of me, half of my heart and half of my soul,” Navalnaya said in her video statement.
“But I still have the other half, and that tells me that I have no right to give up. “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny,” she declared.
AP
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