The mother of Alexei Navalny, the Putin critic who died in a Russian prison, has called on President Vladimir Putin to release his body.
In a video filmed outside the colony where he died on Friday, she said she had been trying to see him for five days but didn’t even know where he was.
And Navalny’s wife Yulia urged the authorities not to stop his loved ones from saying goodbye to him.
The families have been told his body will not be released for two weeks.
His mother was informed it was being held for “chemical analysis”, a representative for Navalny said.
There has been no confirmation of the whereabouts of the body from Russian authorities, while efforts to locate it have been repeatedly shut down.
Yulia Navalnaya has alleged her husband’s body was being kept until traces of poisoning by the nerve agent Novichok had disappeared. Navalny survived an attempt to kill him using the poison in 2020.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the accusations “unfounded and vulgar” but added that since Ms Navalnaya was widowed just days ago he wouldn’t comment further.
In a separate development, Russia’s Tass news agency reported that a new criminal case had begun against Navalny’s brother Oleg. He is already wanted by police for something else.
Navalny’s mother made a direct appeal to President Putin outside the Siberian penal colony known as Polar Wolf, where his death was announced on 16 February.
