Navalny's team confirms his death as Russian police arrest hundreds of supporters

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A spokesperson for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Saturday confirmed his death at a Russian penal colony, declaring he was "murdered" as police arrested hundreds of his supporters across the country.

Kira Yarmysh said in a post on the social media platform X that the activist's mother was officially notified by authorities her son's death occurred at 2:17 p.m. Friday, local time, at a penal colony near Salekhard, a city above the Arctic Circle located more than 1,900 miles northeast of Moscow.

"An employee of the colony said that the body of Navalny is now in Salekhard," Yarmysh wrote. "It was picked up by investigators from the [Investigative Committee of Russia]. Now they are conducting 'investigations' with him.

"We demand that Alexey Navalny's body be handed over to his family immediately," she declared.

She later wrote that Navalny's mother and lawyer went to the morgue in Salekhard where they were told the body was being kept but when they arrived were informed the facility was closed and his body was not there.

Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote on X that Navalny's mother and lawyer were being given conflicting information by various officials over his cause of death and that police are refusing to release his body.

Navalny's family was subsequently told an investigation had been completed and nothing criminal had been found, Yarmysh said.

"They literally lie every time, driving us around in circles and covering their tracks," she wrote.

Russia's Federal Prison Service said that Navalny, 47, died after reportedly not feeling well after a walk and losing consciousness. He was serving 30 years on extremism and fraud charges.

"The facility's medical workers immediately arrived at the scene and an emergency medical team was called in," the service said. "All necessary resuscitation measures have been carried out but they did not yield positive results. Emergency medics confirmed the death of the convict."

Reports of Navalny's death brought condemnations from around the world. including from U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, European Council President Charles Michel, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne and many others, all of whom blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his political opponent's death.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Navalny's death only further cemented Putin's legacy as "one of the bloodiest dictators in European history."

During a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday, he promised Ukraine would work alongside "everyone in the world who can bring him to justice. I urge every leader in the world not to remain silent and not to stand aside. The murderer must be punished," he said.

On Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, Zelensky predicted Putin "has only two options ahead -- to be in the dock in The Hague [as a war criminal], or to be killed by one of his accomplices."

The death of Navalny, he asserted, renders it impossible to view the Russian president as a legitimate head of state as he seeks a fifth term in elections set for March 15-17.

"He is a thug who maintains power through corruption and violence," Zelensky said, asserting that any world leader who attends his "so-called 'inauguration'" and shakes his hand will be showing disdain for "the very nature of political power."

Meanwhile, independent sources reported Russian officials have launched a crackdown against Navalny's supporters reacting to his death.

Social media videos posted overnight Saturday showed authorities in Russian cities officials removing flowers and other makeshift tributes to Navalny, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Monitoring group OVD-Info reported a total of 273 arrests were made in major cities across the country by Saturday afternoon, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and elsewhere.

Police in the St. Petersburg region detained orthodox priest Grigory Makhnov-Vaitenko for planning to perform a memorial service in honor of Navalny, the group claimed.