Russians gather to bid Navalny farewell, only relatives were allowed to attend service for 20 minutes – video, photo
Pravda Ukraine
On 1 March, a funeral service for Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died in a penal colony on 16 February, is taking place in Moscow.
Details: Only relatives and loved ones were allowed to enter the church. Following the funeral service, the coffin containing Navalny’s body was carried out of the church and taken to the cemetery. The funeral service lasted less than twenty minutes.
The church is surrounded by metal fences. The queue of people waiting to say goodbye to Navalny stretched for over a kilometre. The exact number of people who came to say goodbye has not been reported, but it is in the hundreds.
People standing around the fences occasionally chant “Navalny!” and “We will not forgive!”.
Additionally, ambassadors from the EU and the United States arrived to bid Navalny farewell. So, near the temple, US Ambassador Lynne M. Tracy, German Ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, French Ambassador Pierre Lévy, and diplomatic representatives from several other EU countries were seen.
Navalny’s remains will be transported to the Borisov Cemetery following the funeral service. The grave where he will be buried is at the cemetery entrance.
According to Sota, at least forty police cars of various sizes gathered near the church early in the morning, ranging from cars to special buses; metal fences were installed along the road; and riot police were on duty.
Police officers inspect the documents and personal belongings of passers-by on both banks of the river. Paddy wagons are on their way to the temple.
Background:
- On the afternoon of 16 February, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Correctional Facility No. 3 in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in northwestern Siberia. Representatives of the colony where Navalny was located told the politician’s mother that he died of sudden death syndrome.
- On the morning of 19 February, Lyudmila Navalnaya arrived at the morgue in the town of Salekhard where the body of her son, opposition politician Alexei Navalny, was allegedly kept. Still, neither she nor her lawyers were allowed in.
- On 23 February, Lyudmila reported that the prison administration threatened to bury her son’s body in the prison colony if she did not agree to a secret, quiet burial.
- On 24 February, Russia’s prison employees finally handed over the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his mother.
- On 27 February, the politician’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh reported that Moscow funeral agencies refused to provide premises for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
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