Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony on Feb. 16, destabilizing the movement six months before the next election. Russian refusal to release the body has also led many, including Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya, to speak out.

“They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably,” Yulia Navalnaya said in a video she released Monday accusing Russian president Vladimir Putin of killing Navalny. 

Authorities have denied these accusations, stating that Navalny died while taking a walk inside the colony, collapsing and never regaining consciousness. Prison authorities reported he suffered “sudden death syndrome”, but it is unclear if an autopsy has been performed. Officials claim preliminary inquests will continue for two weeks before the body will be released. 

“For the fifth day, I have been unable to see him,” Navalny’s mother Lyudmila Navalnaya said in a video filmed with the colony in the background. “They wouldn’t release his body to me. And they’re not even telling me where he is.”

Public outcry erupted after Navany’s death, with many mourning him alongside his family. Police have arrested around 400 people across Russia for trying to pay tribute to Navalny according to OVD-Info, a group that surveils political detainments. 

“After despair, came the understanding that we can’t give up. I went to the memorial to the victims of repression to lay flowers and show like-minded people that they are not alone,” a Russian hospitality worker, Anastasia, told The Washington Post. “It is especially important for everyone now to do what they can to bring about change.”

Authorities have also sealed memorials to victims of Soviet repression that were being used to pay tribute to Navalny. Flowers placed by mourners were removed by police at night, but people continued to place new ones. OVD-Info also reported that over 75,000 people submitted requests to the government requesting Navalny’s remains be released to his relatives.

“I’m proud that I am who I am in many ways thanks to Navalny,” deputy editor of Navany-aligned media outlet Nikita Stupin wrote. “This man instilled desire for freedom and faith in a bright future in an entire generation. And no one can take this away from me.”

Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, had declared that she will step up to fight against Putin and lead the opposition party. In a video address Monday, Yulia Navalnaya urged Russians to rally behind her in both her grief and rage. 

“This really is a political bid for leadership,” a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center Andrei Kolesnikov said to NBC News. “She has a chance to become a unifying figure because she can become a moral symbol of resistance.”

The Russian government was also accused of perpetrating an attack on Navalny in 2020 when Navalny was poisoned by a nerve agent. Yulia Navalnaya played a vital role at the time by campaigning for his removal from Russia to receive critical treatment in Germany.

“No matter how cool the scientific and medical explanation may sound, now I know for sure simply from my own experience: love heals and brings you back to life,” Navalny wrote in an Instagram Post after coming out of his coma, “Yulia, you saved me, and let this be included in neurobiology textbooks.”

Proposals that Yulia Navalnaya enter politics have been floated around since 2018 when Navalny was barred from the presidential election, but until now Navalnaya has shown no interest in politics. 

“Putin killed half of me, half of my heart, half of my soul,” Yulia Navalnaya said, during a 9-minute address Monday responding to Navalny’s death. “But I have the other half left, and it’s telling me that I don’t have the right to give up.”