[
Russian authorities have introduced that opposition chief Alexei A. Mr Navalny died of pure causes, however they’re refusing to launch his stays until his mom agrees to a “secret funeral”, Mr Navalny's mom and her spokesman mentioned on Thursday. Stated.
Mr Navalny's mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, mentioned he was taken “secretly” to the morgue on Wednesday evening, “the place they confirmed me Alexei.” They had been proven a medical report on Mr Navalny's dying which mentioned he died of pure causes, In accordance Navalny staff spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh.
However Ms Navalnaya mentioned she is now locked in a pitched battle with native authorities within the northern Russian metropolis of Salekhard, who aren’t releasing custody of the stays beneath orders from Moscow. She mentioned authorities had warned that if she “didn’t comply with a secret cremation” then “they’d do one thing with my son's physique.”
“They’re blackmailing me,” Ms Navalnya mentioned in a video posted on her son’s YouTube channel. “They’re dictating the situations for me as to the place, when and the way Alexei ought to be buried.”
The back-and-forth over Mr Navalny's stays reveals how vital a determine he stays in Russian politics, even in dying. The Kremlin fears that the funeral of Mr Navalny's supporters may change into a focus of protests. There was no quick remark from Russian officers on Ms Navalnya's claims.
“They wish to take me to a recent grave on the fringe of the cemetery and say, 'Right here is your son,'” Ms. Navalny mentioned in her video from Salekhard, the closest city to the Arctic jail the place Mr. Navalny final died. Had occurred. Week. “I don’t agree with this. I need these of you who valued Alexei and took his dying as a private tragedy to have an opportunity to say goodbye to him.
Because the drama performed out, President Vladimir V. Putin remained silent about Mr. Navalny and continued a marketing campaign tour that appeared geared towards subsequent month's presidential election — a rubber-stamp affair of Mr. Putin's victory. There have been assurances, however the Kremlin hopes to make use of them to reveal Mr Putin's legitimacy.
On Thursday, Mr Putin made a brief flight on a supersonic bomber, a stunt that doubled as a stark reminder to the West of his nation's standing as a nuclear superpower.
The flight took solely half-hour, however the wide-wing Tu-160M, also referred to as the White Swan in Russia, has the vary to permit it to achieve the US with two dozen nuclear warheads, the Kremlin mentioned in a press release. Permits.
Russian state tv confirmed Mr Putin, 71, climbing stairs beneath the enormous warplane, one of many world's largest and heaviest, earlier than it took off from the runway of an airfield within the metropolis of Kazan, east of Moscow. The Kremlin launched a video of Mr Putin's flight, exhibiting him sitting within the pilot's seat.
Upon disembarking from the airplane, Mr Putin advised reporters the flight had left an excellent impression and praised the brand new trendy bomber as “very dependable”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Mr Putin made the choice to fly spontaneously on Thursday when he visited an aviation manufacturing facility in Kazan, the place he inspected 4 modernized Tu-160M bombers, Peskov advised state tv.
However since changing into Russian president greater than 20 years in the past, Mr Putin has change into identified for publicity stunts designed to current him as a robust chief of an important energy.
Throughout this time, Mr Putin flew in a fighter jet, descended into the ocean in a submersible and flew Siberian cranes to their winter habitat in a motorized hold glider. The broadly coated stunt offered Mr Putin as a bodily match and fearless chief.
The bomber's flight gave the impression to be an try to ship a transparent message amid essentially the most critical geopolitical battle between Moscow and the West for the reason that darkest occasions of the Chilly Conflict.