After days of being denied access, Navalny’s mother Lyudmila said Thursday she had finally been allowed to see her dead son’s body.
But she said the authorities were not willing to give her custody and wanted to bury him secretly.
More than 25 film-makers, artists, Nobel Prize winners and opponents of Putin have so far called for his body to be released, in videos published by his team on social media.
They include Nobel Prize-winning editor Dmitry Muratov, protest rock band Pussy Riot member and activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, writer Victor Shenderovich and movie director Andrey Zvyagintsev.
“It’s awkward to talk about this in a country that considers itself to still be Christian. Just give Lyudmila Ivanovna her son … without any conditions,” Muratov said.
The authorities were trying to keep Navalny in solitary confinement even in death, he added – just as they had done for long stints of his three years in prison.
“Putin was scared of Navalny for many years during his life,” writer and long-time Putin critic Shenderovich said.
“Putin is scared of Navalny after his death – after he killed Navalny he’s still scared of him,” he added.
