One of Navalny's senior aides said today, Saturday, on his social media account that the body of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been delivered to his mother.

Ivan Zhdanov, director of the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, expressed his thanks and appreciation to everyone who called on the Russian authorities to return Navalny's body to his mother.

Earlier on Saturday, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow, accused President Vladimir Putin of mocking Christianity by trying to force his mother to agree to a secret funeral after his death in a penal colony in the Arctic.

Zhdanov wrote on social media: "Thank you very much. Thanks to everyone who wrote and recorded video messages. You have done everything you could. Thank you, the body of Alexei Navalny has been delivered to his mother."

Navalny, 47, the most famous opposition politician in Russia, unexpectedly died on February 16 in a penal colony in the Arctic, and his family has been fighting for more than a week to recover his body. Prominent Russians issued videos calling on the authorities to release the body.

Navalny's death prompted hundreds of Russians across the country to impromptu memorials to lay flowers and candles. Meanwhile, authorities detained dozens of people as they sought to suppress any large outpouring of sympathy for Putin's fierce enemy before the presidential elections that he is almost certain to win. Russians on social media say officials do not want to return Navalny's body to his family because they fear a public display of support, accusing Putin, an Orthodox Christian, of killing Navalny.