The family of Alexei Navalny stepped up their campaign for access to the late Russian opposition leader’s body Tuesday — an effort that was briefly interrupted when his widow’s account was suspended by X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
It comes just a day after Yulia Navalnaya launched the account, posting a video statement accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband and hiding his body to cover it up.
She also declared her intention to continue his fight against the Kremlin.
On Tuesday, Navalnaya’s account displayed a message that it was suspended and that X suspends accounts that violate its rules. It had already been followed by more than 90,000 people.
The account was restored some 20 minutes later.
The company’s @Safety service subsequently said: “Our platform’s defense mechanism against manipulation and spam mistakenly flagged @yulia_navalnaya as violating our rules. We unsuspended the account as soon as we became aware of the error, and will be updating the defense.”
X, which is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from NBC News.
Navalny’s team has used X to communicate in the days since his death, sharing updates on the efforts of his mother and lawyers to see his body.
Hours earlier Navalnaya shared a video from his mother, Lyudmila Navalnyaya, demanding that Putin release her son’s body so she can bury him. Navalny’s team said they had been told it would be held for at least another 14 days while undergoing some sort of “chemical examination.” It has accused the Kremlin of trying to buy time.
“For the fifth day I cannot see him, they aren’t giving me his body and don’t even tell me where he is,” his mother said in the message, standing outside the jail where her son died on Friday.
“I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin. Resolving this issue depends on you alone. Let me finally see my son,” she added.
Navalny, the Kremlin’s fiercest critic, died in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle after collapsing following a walk, Russia’s prison service said. His death has sparked an outpouring of grief in Russia and around the world, with many Western leaders pointing the finger at Putin. The Kremlin has called such accusations “unacceptable,” while Putin has yet to comment himself.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Navalnaya’s accusations Putin killed her husband were “absolutely unfounded, caddish accusations against the head of the Russian state.” But, he added, “given that Yulia Navalnaya became a widow literally days earlier, I will leave this without a comment.”
On Monday, Navalnaya asked European Union foreign ministers not to recognize next month’s presidential election in Russia, according to a transcript of their meeting provided by Navalny’s spokesperson Kyra Yarmysh.
“A president who kills his main political opponent is not legitimate by definition,” Navalnaya said, according to the transcript.
