Navalny to be buried today – these photos show how Moscow is getting ready Navalny team calls people for funeral in Moscow – funeral directors receive threatening phone calls

When and where will Navalny be buried?

The funeral service at the church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Relieve my Sorrow” in the southeastern district of Marjino is scheduled for 2 p.m. local time (12 p.m. CET), as Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch confirmed on Thursday.

The funeral will take place two hours later at the Borisovskoye cemetery, about half an hour’s walk away.

The German Ambassador to Russia, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, also wants to attend, the German Press Agency learned upon request. It is feared that the Russian power apparatus will take tough action against Navalny’s supporters.

How large will the security presence be?

On Thursday, police took up positions in front of the cemetery and checked IDs and bags of passers-by. In addition, numerous barriers were brought to the cemetery grounds. In recent weeks, hundreds of people have been arrested across Russia for wanting to lay flowers at monuments to the well-known opposition politician.

What causes problems?

Navalny spokeswoman Yarmysch also complained on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that authorities continued to hinder preparations for the funeral service. It has still not been possible to organize a hearse to take Navalny’s body to the churchshe wrote on Thursday afternoon.

Funeral homes in Moscow received threatening phone calls from unknown people warning them not to transport the body. “Despite all resistance, Alexei’s farewell will certainly take place tomorrow,” she confirmed.

It is far from the first time that Navalny’s relatives and supporters have reported pressure and attempts at blackmail by Russian authorities. What caused particular horror was that authorities initially kept Navalny’s body under lock and key for about a week and mother Lyudmila Navalnaya had to search for the body with a lawyer in the Arctic.

Then the power apparatus wanted to force her to hold her son’s funeral in secret, as Lyudmila Navalnaya said several times. However, she opposed this and publicly demanded that Russians be given the opportunity to say goodbye to Navalny.

Finally, Navalny’s team stated that they wanted to organize a location for the funeral service. However, the search was, as expected, difficult. They found no room in which Navalny’s body would be laid out before the funeral service – as is customary in Russian Orthodox tradition – that was open to all mourners. That is why only a prayer service and a funeral are now allowed to take place. Shortly before the presidential elections on March 17, all major critical events are a thorn in the side of the Kremlin.

How did Navalny die?

According to official information, Navalny died on February 16 at the age of 47 in a prison camp north of the Arctic Circle. The sharp critic of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was physically weakened by a poison attack in 2020 and continued solitary confinement in the camp.

His supporters and many international observers agree that there can be no ‘natural’ cause of death, as stated in the death certificate. (sda/dpa)