Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Hundreds gather for Alexei Navalny’s funeral
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.
It follows a battle with authorities over the release of his body after his still-unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.
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, his coffin could be 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 big numbers.
Western diplomats, including US Ambassador Lynn Tracy, were among those who attended, along with presidential hopefuls Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova. Both wanted to run against Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential elections and opposed his war in Ukraine; neither was allowed on the ballot.
Authorities lined the road 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 the police were also out in force 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 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles) north-east 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 on social media. They also were unable to find a hearse for the funeral.
“Unknown people are calling up people and threatening them not to take Alexei’s body anywhere,” Ms Yarmysh said on Thursday.
Russian authorities still have not announced the cause of death for Navalny, 47, who crusaded against official corruption and organised large protests as Mr Putin’s fiercest political foe. Many Western leaders blamed the death on the Russian leader, which the Kremlin angrily rejected.
It had earlier not been clear who 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 regional offices were designated “extremist organisations” by the Russian government in 2021.