Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged those gathering in Moscow and other places not to break the law, saying any “unauthorised (mass) gatherings” are violations.”Those people who follow what is happening, it is of course obvious to them that this man is a hero of our country, whom we will not forget,” said Nadezhda Ivanova, a Kaliningrad resident who was outside the church with other supporters. “What was done to him is incredibly difficult to accept and get through it.”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 stroked and 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.Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, spent eight days trying to get authorities to release the body following his Feb. 16 death at Penal Colony No. 3 in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region, about 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.Even on Friday itself, the morgue where the body was being held delayed its release, according to Ivan Zhdanov, Navalny’s close ally and director of his Anti-Corruption Foundation.Authorities originally said they couldn’t turn over the body because they needed to conduct post-mortem tests. Navalnaya made a video appeal to Putin to release it so she could bury her son with dignity.At least one funeral director said he had been “forbidden” to work with Navalny’s supporters, his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on social media. They also struggled to find a hearse. “Unknown people are calling up people and threatening them not to take Alexei’s body anywhere,” Yarmysh said Thursday.Russian authorities still haven’t announced the cause of death for Navalny, who was 47.
Source link
