Russian opposition leader Navalny’s body ‘missing’

Russian citizens left flowers and gifts as tributes to Navalny. Pic/AP

Alexei Navalny's spokesperson confirmed on Saturday that the Russian opposition leader had died at a remote Arctic penal colony and said he was "murdered," but it is unclear where his body is. An official note handed to Navalny's mother stated that he died at 2.17 pm local time Friday, Kira Yarmysh said. She added that an employee of the prison colony said that Navalny's body was taken to the nearby city of Salekhard as part of a probe into his death. She demanded that his body be handed over to his family.

When a lawyer and Navalny's mother visited the morgue in Salekhard, it was closed, Navalny's team said, writing on their Telegram channel. The lawyer called the morgue and was told that Navalny's body was not there, his team said. "We demand that Alexey Navalny's body be handed over to his family immediately," Yarmysh wrote on X, previously Twitter. The cause and the circumstances of Navalny's death Friday remain largely unclear. Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Navalny felt sick after a walk and became unconscious at the penal colony in the town of Kharp.

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