Hundreds gather in Moscow snow
Police look on as mourners honour Russian opposition leader despite government efforts to prevent any sort of public commemoration
Hundreds of people gathered under a heavy police presence in south-east Moscow yesterday for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s funeral.
Workers carried his coffin into the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows after a hearse carrying his body arrived at the church.
His coffin was taken to a cemetery after a short funeral service in the church.
Itfollowsabattlewithauthoritiesoverthereleaseofhisbody after his still-unexplained deathinanarcticpenalcolony.
His supporters say several churches in Moscow refused to hold the service before Navalny’s team got permission from one in the capital’s Maryino district, where he once lived before his 2020 poisoning, treatment in Germany and subsequent arrest on his return to Russia.
On livestreamed footage,hiscoffincouldbe seen being taken out of the vehicle, with the crowd applauding and chanting in the background: “Navalny! Navalny!”
Some also shouted: “You weren’t afraid, neither are we!” and later “No to war!”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged those gathering in Moscow and other places not to break the law, saying any “unauthorised (mass) gatherings” are violations.
The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, which was encircled by crowd-control barriers, did not mention the service on its social media page.
Hours before the funeral was set to start, hundreds waited to enter the church under the watch of riot police who deployed in large numbers.
Western diplomats, including US ambassador Lynn Tracy, were among those who attended, along with presidential hopefuls Boris Nadezhdin andyekaterinaduntsova.both wantedtorunagainstvladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential elections and opposed his war in Ukraine; neither was allowed on the ballot.
Authorities lined the road from from a nearby subway station to the church with crowd-control barriers.
After the short funeral, a crowd of thousands marched from the church to the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery, where thepolicewerealsooutinforce for the burial.
With the casket open, Navalny’s parents and others kissed his body. Meanwhile, a large crowd of supporters gathered at the gates of the cemetery, chanting: “Let us in to say goodbye!”
The coffin was then lowered into the ground, allies said.
A photo from inside the church showed an open casket with Navalny’s body covered with red and white flowers, and his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, sitting beside it holding a candle.
Ms Navalnaya, spent eight days trying to get authorities to release the body following his February 16 death at Penal Colony No 3 in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-nenets region about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow. Authorities originally said they could not turn over the body because they needed to conduct post-mortem tests. Ms Navalnaya, 69, made a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin to release the body so she could bury her son with dignity.
Once it was released, at least one funeral director said he had been “forbidden” to work with Navalny’s supporters, the spokeswoman for Navalny’s team, Kira Yarmysh, said.
“Unknown people are calling up people and threatening them not to take Alexei’s body anywhere,” Ms Yarmysh said.
Russian authorities still have not announced the cause of death for Navalny, 47, who crusaded against official corruption and organised large protestsasmrputin’sfiercestpolitical foe. Many Western leaders
blamed the death on the Russian leader, which the Kremlin angrily rejected.
It was not immediately clear who among Navalny’s family or allies would attend the funeral, with many of his associates in exile abroad due to fear of prosecution in Russia.
Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his regional offices were designated as “extremist organisations” in 2021.
The politician’s team said the funeral would be streamed on Navalny’s Youtube channel.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of trying to block a public funeral.
“We don’t want any special treatment – just to give people the opportunity to say farewell to Alexei in a normal way,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote on X.
And in a post yesterday, Ms Navalnaya paid tribute to her husband, saying: “I don’t know how to live without you, but I will try make you up there happy for me and proud of me.”
Moscow authorities refused permission for a separate memorial event for Navalny and late opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Friday, citing Covid-19 restrictions, politician Yekaterina Duntsova said on Thursday. Nemtsov, a 55-yearold former deputy prime minister, was shot to death as he walked on a bridge adjacent to thekremlinonthenightoffebruary 27, 2015.
Ms Yarmysh also urged Navalny’s supporters around the world to lay flowers in his honour yesterday.
Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-corruption Foundation, said that his funeralhadinitiallybeenplannedfor Thursday–thedayofmrputin’s annual state-of-the-nation address – but no venue agreed to hold it then.
In an interview with the independent Russian news site Meduza, Mr Zhdanov said authorities had pressured Navalny’s relatives to “have a quiet family funeral”.