Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died suddenly on Friday in an Arctic prison. On Monday, his widow Yulia Navalnaya posted a statement to YouTube.

Navalnaya said that her husband was tortured during his imprisonment, and that Russian authorities have yet to turn over his body.

"This is a mob message to the opposition in the weeks leading up to [the Russian] election," said Charles Sennott, founder and Editor-in-Chief of nonprofit local news organization The GroundTruth Project, during a segment on Boston Public Radio.

Navalny's death comes ahead of the upcoming Russian presidential election, to be held between March 15 and 17. Besides President Vladimir Putin, three other candidates are running, all of whom support Russia's war in Ukraine.

Navalnaya said she plans to take up her husband's cause.

"Vladimir Putin killed my husband," she said, according to English-translated subtitles on the video. "I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny. I will continue to fight for our country. And I encourage you to stand by my side."

Navalny's mother is currently in Siberia trying to retrieve his body.

"They are not even allowing the family to have the body. Now, why is that? That's because they don't want an autopsy. And why is that? That's because, in that body, we may well find this drug, Novichok," Sennott said.

Putin and his government have used the nerve agent family for political assassinations, he said.

Navalnaya claims that Russian authorities are waiting to return his body so there will be no trace of the nerve agent.

On Friday, the day of Navalny's death, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to the United States' European allies at the Munich Security Conference, but didn't offer offer as much support against Russia as Sennott would have hoped.

"It was very frustrating to see Kamala Harris there in Munich and really not able to summon the support of the world because the world isn't sure we're going to be there," he said.

Sennott stressed the importance of a quote from Navalny that Navalnaya reiterated in her video statement.

"It is not shameful to do little. It is shameful to do nothing."