The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny vowed on Monday to continue his fight against the Kremlin while authorities denied his mother access to a morgue where his body is believed to be held after his death last week at an Arctic penal colony.

Fighting back tears, Yulia Navalnaya accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband in the remote prison and vowed to punish him and other alleged perpetrators. She also slammed the authorities, saying they were refusing to hand over the body to his mother to cover-up his alleged killing and referred to his alleged earlier poisoning with a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities said that the cause for Navalnys death Friday at age 47 is still unknown. He had been jailed since January 2021 , when he returned to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from poisoning with a Novichok-type nerve agent that he blamed on the Kremlin. He received three prison terms since his arrest, on a number of charges he has rejected as politically motivated.

They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably while waiting for the trace of another Putins Novichok to disappear, Navalnaya said.

She urged the Russians to rally behind her to share not only the grief and endless pain that has enveloped and gripped us, but also my rage.

Rage, anger, hatred for those who dared to kill our future, she said. I address you with the words of Alexey, in which I really believe: its not a shame to do little, its a shame to do nothing. Its a shame to let yourself be intimidated.

Navalnaya urged all those who mourn Navalny to unite to fulfill his dream of a beautiful Russia of the future so that the unimaginable sacrifice he made wasnt in vain.