Navalny died in an Arctic prison colony, and the state held his body for eight days while investigators pressed his mother to agree to a secret burial

Alexei Navalny died on 16 February 2024, aged 47, at Penal Colony No. 3 in Kharp, in the Russian Arctic. The authorities kept his body. His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, went to the Arctic city of Salekhard, where investigators let her see the body in the morgue. She was shown a medical certificate stating he died of natural causes. She sued over the refusal to release the body, and a closed hearing was set for 4 March. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said the authorities told his mother the body was decomposing and she had little time to decide. She said his mother was "literally tortured" and accused Vladimir Putin of pushing for a secret funeral. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected claims that Putin was involved in the death. On 24 February 2024 Navalny's aide Ivan Zhdanov announced that the body had been given to his mother. The OVD-Info rights group counted at least 27 people detained in nine cities for showing support. The funeral took place on 1 March 2024 at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows in Moscow. Thousands came; riot police put up barricades. His parents sat beside the open casket. Yulia Navalnaya was not seen there. He was buried at Borisovskoye Cemetery in south-eastern Moscow.