The mother of Alexei Navalny has issued an appeal directly to Vladimir Putin for the release of her son’s body.
Standing outside the “Polar Wolf” Arctic Circle penal colony where Mr Navalny died, 69-year-old Lyudmila Navalnaya says: “I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin, because the solution to this problem depends only on you.
“Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body be released immediately so that I can bury him in a humane way.”
Her remarks came as Russia initiated a new criminal case against Navalny’s brother, Oleg, a Russian news agency reported.
TASS did not say under which article of the criminal code the case had been opened, but said police were searching for Oleg Navalny, who was already on the wanted list in connection with another matter.
Ms Navalnaya travelled to “Polar Wolf” last Saturday following news that her son had died - but when she tried to pick up the body, she was told it was being withheld for investigations.
The Russian authorities have since said that they will not return his body for roughly two weeks while they continue investigating his death.
Mr Navalny’s wife, Yulia, has accused the authorities of holding his body to wait for traces of “yet another Putin's Novichok” to leave his body — referring to the military nerve agent used to poison him years ago.