Aleksei Navalny’s Allies Confirm His Death


 A spokeswoman for the team that has continued Mr. Navalny’s work said his mother had received the official notification.

Aleksei A. Navalny’s political allies on Saturday confirmed his death, saying that his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, had received an official notification that her son died on Friday afternoon. His family was still waiting for officials to release the body.

Kira Yarmysh, Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, said in a statement on X that Russian investigators had transferred Mr. Navalny’s body from a penal colony in the Arctic to the town of Salekhard, where it was being examined.


“We demand for Aleksei Navalny’s body to be released to his family immediately,” Ms. Yarmysh said in her statement.

Mr. Navalny’s mother and his lawyer arrived on Saturday morning at the penal colony in the Kharp settlement, Ms. Yarmysh said in a video statement. She and others had to wait for two hours before a prison official came out to say that Mr. Navalny’s body had been transferred to Salekhard.

In Salekhard, a regional center close to the penal colony, Mr. Navalny’s mother and his lawyer found the local morgue closed. When they called, the officials said that Mr. Navalny’s body was not there, Ms. Yarmysh said. Another lawyer was told, she said, that an “additional histology” had been performed to determine the cause of Mr. Navalny’s death, and that its results should be ready next week.

“They lie and they do everything not to give out the body,” Ms. Yarmysh said. officials continued to detain Mr. Navalny’s supporters on Saturday as they took to the streets to mourn his death, a sign that the Kremlin wanted to prevent the death from turning into a political event. At least 200 people had been detained since the death was announced on Friday, according to OVD Info, a rights group that tracks such arrests.

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