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Yulia Navalnaya accused the Russian president of mocking Christianity after authorities refused at hand over stays to the household.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of opposition chief Alexei Navalny, has demanded that Russian authorities hand over his physique for burial as she accused President Vladimir Putin of mocking Orthodox Christian values and “torturing” his corpse.
“Give us my husband’s physique,” Navalnya stated in a video launched Saturday. She stated she needed to offer him a standard conservative funeral.
“You tortured him alive, and now you torture him lifeless. You make enjoyable of the stays of the lifeless,'' he stated in a message to Putin.
Navalny, a distinguished rival of Putin, died final week within the distant maximum-security Arctic penal colony, the place he was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism costs.
Officers declare that his loss of life occurred resulting from pure causes. They’ve refused at hand over his stays to the household even after 9 days.
Navalny's mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, has stated that investigators had been pressuring her to bury her son in a “secret” method in a non-public ceremony with out mourners.
An officer informed him he ought to comply with their calls for as a result of Navalny's physique was already decomposing, he stated.
Navalny's associates stated authorities had threatened to bury him within the jail colony the place he died until his household agreed to their phrases.
“They wish to take me to a contemporary grave on the far finish of the cemetery and say: 'Right here lies your son',” his mom stated in a video posted on YouTube on Thursday. “I don't agree with that.”
'How low will you fall?'
“No true Christian may ever do what Putin is now doing with Alexei's physique,” his widow stated within the video, questioning Putin's often-stated Christian religion.
“What is going to you do along with his lifeless physique? How low would you stoop to mock the person you murdered?”, she requested and added, “We already knew Putin’s confidence was faux. However now we see it extra clearly than ever.”
The Russian chief is usually seen taking a dip in ice water to have fun Epiphany in church and visiting holy websites in Russia. He has promoted what he calls “conventional values”, with out which, he as soon as stated, “society collapses”, and he has claimed his closeness to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has condemned allegations – even from world leaders – that Putin was concerned in Navalny's loss of life, calling them “completely baseless, brazen accusations concerning the Russian head of state.”
Musician Nadya Tolokonnikova, who grew to become extensively identified after spending practically two years in jail for participating within the 2012 protests along with her band Pussy Riot inside Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, launched a video through which she praised Putin However accused of hypocrisy.
“We had been imprisoned for allegedly suppressing conventional values. However nobody tramples on conventional Russian values greater than you, Putin, your officers and your monks, who yr after yr, day after day, pray for all of the murders you commit,” Tolokonnikova, who lives overseas Stay in, stated. “Putin, have a conscience, give her son's physique to his mom.”
Tolokonnikova was certainly one of a number of cultural icons who launched movies calling on Russian authorities to return Navalny's physique to his household.
Critics say authorities worry the funeral may flip right into a mass public demonstration in help of the opposition chief.
Preparations for the funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin's ally-turned-rival and founding father of the Wagner mercenary group, had been saved secret and his physique buried on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, away from the glare of the media.
Whereas Russian media gave little house to the information of Navalny's loss of life, folks took to the streets of cities throughout the nation to pay tribute to the opposition chief. In line with the protest monitoring group OVD-Information, police arrested at the least 400 folks within the first 24 hours after information of his loss of life.