Return Navalny's body to his family, famous Russians urge the authorities

Russians including Nobel Prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov and ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov have released videos calling on Russian authorities to return the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his family, a week after his death in an Arctic penal colony.

Lyudmila Navalnaya said investigators allowed her to see her son’s body in the city morgue. She said she repeated her demand to have Navalny’s body returned to her and protested what she described as authorities trying to force her to agree to a secret burial.

“They are blackmailing me. They are setting conditions where, when and how my son should be buried,” she said Thursday in a video statement from the Arctic city of Salekhard. “They want it to do it secretly without a mourning ceremony.”