Putin Fears Navalny Funeral Could Trigger Mass Demonstrations, Khodorkovsky Says

The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely refusing to release the body of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who died suspiciously in prison on February 16, because it fears a massive outpouring of grief and support just ahead of the March presidential election, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a leading Russian opposition figure, said.

"There could be large-scale confrontations in Moscow," the exiled former oil tycoon said in an interview with Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

"The authorities do not want people to understand how many of them oppose Putin. The main task of Putin’s propaganda is to convince people that if they are against Putin, they are on the margins…. If people see that there are really a lot of them...then the situation can change in seconds."

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Khodorkovsky: 'Putin Afraid' Navalny Funeral Could Spark Protests

Russian authorities have yet to release Navalny's body to his family, while his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said on February 22 they were pressing her to hold a private funeral "without any farewell ceremonies."

Khodorkovsky, who lives in London in exile and funds various projects aimed at promoting democracy in Russia, said that if Navalny's family rejected the government's demands, his body likely would not be released until after the March 17 presidential election, which the Kremlin hopes to use as a show of national unity in support of Putin and the ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A large show of support for Navalny would be "a very serious signal to the elite," Khodorkovsky told Current Time.

Khodorkovsky described Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who has pledged to continue her husband's work, as "a person who is acceptable to the majority of opposition leaders" and said he was ready to coordinate with her and "join forces in tackling certain issues."

However, he said the democratic Russian opposition was too diverse to unite around a single figure "even the smartest, most brilliant, and best person imaginable."

He added that Putin’s government was "pushing us toward revolution" by replacing politics with government violence.

"The more it uses violent methods and the harsher it is with the opposition, the greater the likelihood that the opposition will become radicalized and adopt responses that are rather harsh and radical," he said. "And after that, one should expect that Russia will become a democratic country. That is just objective reality."

Khodorkovsky also urged the West not to recognize the legitimacy of the March presidential election and to deal with Putin from a position of strength.

"The West’s weakness gives Putin a free hand," he said, encouraging him to continue his aggression.

"What can stop him is a show of force," he said. "If you have the power, show it. If you don't, then just wait until he kicks in your door."

He said he believes adopting further sanctions against Russia would have little effect, but that existing sanctions need more rigorous enforcement. Many of the advanced weapons systems Russia is deploying in Ukraine contain Western-made components, he said, which encourages Putin not to consider sanctions a serious problem.

Formerly Russia's richest man, Khodorkovsky, 60, was arrested in 2003 on fraud charges that he says were trumped up by Putin and his allies to punish his political activity, bring influential tycoons to heel, and put the oil assets of his company, Yukos, into state hands.

He spent just over a decade in prison before being pardoned and flown out of the country in December 2013.