Putin critic Navalny’s mother says she has been shown his body – but won’t be blackmailed into secret burial

Alexei Navalny’s mother has said she has finally been shown his body almost a week after his death in an Arctic prison – but that that Russian authorities were seeking to “blackmail” her into burying him in a secret ceremony without mourners.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, 69, said that she was taken to the city morgue and that officials told her that if she didn’t agree to a secret funeral, they would “do something” to her son’s body. “They want this to be done secretly, with no farewell. They want to bring me to the edge of a cemetery, to a fresh grave and say: here lies your son. I don’t agree to this,” she said.

A have accused Vladimir Putin and Russian authorities of killing Mr Navalny, the Russian president’s. Mr Navalny’s wife, Yulia, has