The complaint concerned the inadequate level of medical care provided to her son in the penal colony. The court in the city of Labytnangi ruled that only Navalny himself could file such a lawsuit.

“It’s interesting how [he would do it],” Zhdanov wrote on Telegram. He serves as the director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by Navalny in 2011.

“Alexei has repeatedly filed complaints against penal colonies for not providing him with medical assistance. Those claims were dismissed [back then]. Now they killed him, and complaints from his relatives are being rejected with humiliating justifications,” he added.

Russian prison services announced on February 16 that Navalny had suddenly died in a penal colony near the Arctic Circle in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, in the Far North.

In January, three years had passed since Navalny was arrested and imprisoned upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he was treated after an assassination attempt, most likely carried out by Russian special services.

Authorities have initiated further criminal proceedings against him, resulting in sentences totaling over 30 years in prison.