Alexei Navalny’s team confirms death and calls for body to be returned to family

A woman touches a photo of Alexei Navalny after laying flowers paying the last respects to him at the Memorial to Victims of Political Repression in St Petersburg, Russia (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)

Alexei Navalny’s spokesperson has confirmed that the Russian opposition leader died at a remote Arctic penal colony and said he was “murdered”, but it is unclear where his body is.

An official note handed to Mr Navalny’s mother stated that he died at 2.17pm local time on Friday, Kira Yarmysh said.