‘Murderer’ Putin ‘is doing everything he can to avoid handing over Navalny’s body’ as cause of death mystery grows

THE Kremlin is “doing everything he can to avoid” handing over Alexei Navalny’s body, sources claimed tonight.

Russia today said Navalny, 47, died of “sudden death syndrome” but his family – and critics – believe this is a murderous cover-up.

Reuters

Alexei Navalny’s family are still yet to see his body, with mystery growing around his death[/caption]

AP:Associated Press

Navalny was one of Putin’s direct rivals for his anti-Kremlin views and soaring popularity in Russia[/caption]

Rex

Cities across the world have made up makeshift memorial sites for the Kremlin critic including Amsterdam (pictured), Tokyo, London, Madrid, California, Berlin and Lisbon[/caption]

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Critics claim Vladimir Putin played his part in Navalny’s death[/caption]

The claims were spewed to the mother and lawyer of Putin’s biggest critic as they waited to say their final farewells at the morgue.

However, they still haven’t been able to – they’re yet to see him.

They were told Navalny’s body was still not in the morgue in Salekhard – in the Arctic Circle – where officials told the dad’s loved ones it had been taken to.

This has sparked more suspicions around Navalny’s death, which many across the globe have labelled as “murder”.

Critics have now accused crooked Russian authorities of hiding the corpse to “cover their tracks” over the 47-year-old’s demise.

Tonight a source close to the Kremlin’s enemy said: “They are doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body.”

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said earlier today: “Alexei’s lawyer and his mother arrived at the Salekhard morgue.

“It was closed despite the prison saying that it was open and that Navalny’s body was there.

“The lawyer was told he was the seventh caller today… and Alexei’s body is not in the morgue.”

She said that another lawyer, who went to Salekhard’s Investigative Committee, was told: “The cause of Alexei’s death has not yet been established, a new histological examination has to be carried out.”

Ms Yarmysh added: “The results will supposedly be available next week. It’s obvious the killers want to cover their tracks and are therefore not handing over Alexei’s body, hiding it even from his mother.”

And she went on: “We know for sure that it wasn’t just a death — it was a murder.”

Navalny, Putin’s leading domestic critic in Russia, had bravely challenged the tyrant’s rule and his horrific war in Ukraine.

The dad’s supporters always feared that he would be assassinated while behind bars, and his family say he was “cheerful and healthy” in the days leading up to his death.

Prison authorities said Navalny fell unconscious and died after a walk at the feared “Polar Wolf” jail, where he was serving a three-decade sentence.

His mum Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, said documents she was handed detailed that her son had died at 2.17pm yesterday.

Officials told the grieving mother she couldn’t have a few moments to say goodbye to her son until an “examination” was completed.

Ms Navalnaya arrived early this morning at the penal colony in Kharp, 1,200 miles from Moscow, where morgue bosses insisted the body had not gone missing — but still refused to disclose its location.

Dad-of-two Navalny was serving a 30-year jail term on trumped-up extremism convictions and had been a thorn in the side of tyrant Putin, 71, for more than a decade.

Prison authorities said he died at the feared “Polar Wolf” jail — where winter temperatures plummeted to minus 19 degrees — a day after a video-link court hearing at which he smiled and joked with a judge.

Today, Russian media suggested he had been dragged to a harsh “punishment cell” for the 27th time just two days before he collapsed.

People in Russia have said he could have potentially been drugged or poisoned inside the colony run by Colonel Vadim Kalinin, 51.

Navalny’s death — a month before Russians go to the polls in sham presidential elections — dealt a severe blow to the country’s top organised opposition movement.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation, which Navalny founded in 2011 and led until his imprisonment, said: “Alexei Navalny was murdered. We demand his body be handed over to his family immediately.”

Its director Ivan Zhdanov wrote online: “When Alexei’s lawyer and  mother arrived at the colony this morning, they were told that the cause of Navalny’s death was sudden death syndrome.”

Meanwhile, state police launched a brutal crackdown on dozens of spontaneous memorial services in cities across Russia.

At least 340  were arrested while paying tribute to the opposition figure.

On Friday night, more than a thousand gathered outside the Moscow HQ of Russia’s secretive FSB security services to place flowers at the Solovetsky Stone — a memorial to victims of political repression.

As some were arrested and dragged away, the BBC’s Russian editor Steve Rosenberg said from the scene: “For many here, just laying flowers is an act of courage.”

A note stuck to the monument said: “Alexei Navalny’s death is the worst thing that could happen to Russia.”

Tribute marches were shut down and floral tributes snatched by a group of hooded men.

Authorities said any “mass rally” would be broken up and warned people against attending.

But hundreds still bravely turned out at the capital’s “Wall of Grief” — a memorial to those killed by Soviet brute Joseph Stalin — to defiantly lay roses in memory of the pro-democracy campaigner.

Footage posted on Russian social media platform Telegram showed officers manhandling women and children. In St Petersburg — Russia’s second largest city — mourners kneeled at the foot of another political prisoner monument before cops   made more than 90 arrests.

Meanwhile, protests and tributes spread around the world with solidarity marches in more than 50 Western cities. A photo of Navalny’s face was projected on to the front of the Russian Embassy in London. A sign read:  “Putin is a murderer.”

But Russian state TV spent just 28 seconds on the death, despite it making headlines around the world.

David Cameron scolded Vladimir Putin for his potential role in Navalny’s death saying “we should hold Putin accountable” as he blasted Russia’s “dreadful” regime.

He said: “There should be consequences… look what Putin’s Russia did to him.

“He’s died and that is because of the action that Putin’s Russia took.

“No one can look at this regime now and not recognise it for the truly dreadful nature that it has.”

He added that Navalny was “incredibly brave”.

AFP

Tributes to Navalny have been carried out across the world since his death[/caption]

Reuters

Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya at the IK-3 penal colony[/caption]

Reuters

Navalny died at the ‘Polar Wolf’ prison colony yesterday[/caption]