In exchange for the swift release of Alexei Navalny's body, officials offered the politician's mother to transport the body to a morgue outside Moscow and then "quietly" bury him at any cemetery in Moscow, but without a mass public memorial service.
Ivan Zhdanov, the Director of the FBK, reported this based on information from Navalny's mother, Lyudmila according to Moscow Times.
Lyudmila Navalnaya rejected this proposal from a Salekhard investigator who was in constant contact with officials in Moscow. In response, she recorded a video message demanding the release of her son's body.
Zhdanov explained that the requirement to keep the body in the Moscow region or Vladimir region until the funeral was explained by officials' fears of a "storming" of the morgue.
The second requirement was to conduct the funeral "quietly near the cemetery" to prevent a mass gathering and subsequently a march through the streets of Moscow by Navalny's supporters.
"The funeral must take place in a family setting, in the style of [the funeral of] Prigozhin," Zhdanov recounted the investigator's proposal as told by Navalny's mother.
