He likes to invent history and pretend that he’s the toughest guy on the block, but Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to withhold Alexei Navalny’s body from his family is instructive.

For a start, it underlines Putin’s plain disregard for the most basic teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church, teachings he claims are central to Russia’s civil society. That church, of which Navalny was a member, requires that a family be able to pay respects to their departed loved one in the days immediately following death. Funerals are supposed to be held soon after. But Putin’s withholding of the body also illustrates his fear that Navanly’s body might explain how the investigative journalist died.