Relatives of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been unable to retrieve his body from an Arctic prison. Navalny's mother and family did not find his body there when they went to the morgue that Prison authorities said and later learned that his body had been moved to another location.

The British media BBC reported that his mother was told that his body would be handed over after the post-mortem examination.

Russian prison authorities said he died on Friday after collapsing in a prison north of the Arctic Circle. But authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of death.

Meanwhile, Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmish alleged that the leader's body was not being handed over to his family to hide evidence of the murder.

"We believe Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the killing of Navalny," he said. We know for sure it's a murder. They are now trying to destroy the evidence of the murder. That is why they are not handing over the body to the family. They are hiding Navalny's body.

He was previously poisoned in Siberia in August 2020. The Kremlin denied the assassination attempt. At the time, Russian authorities said there was no evidence of nerve agent poisoning.

Russia's most influential opposition leader in the past decade has been Alexei Navalny. He was seen as the staunchest critic of the country's President Vladimir Putin. He had been campaigning against Putin and the Kremlin for corruption. As a result, a Russian court sentenced him to 19 years in prison. Late last year, Navalny was transferred to one of the world's harshest prisons, an Arctic penal colony. He died there. He was 47 years old at the time of his death.

Russian people are furious over Navalny's death. The country's government has already arrested 300 Russians around paying their last respects.