Pavel Golovkin/AP
Alexei Navalny pictured in February 2019.
CNN –
Attempts to rent a hearse to transport Alexei Navalny's body to his funeral were thwarted by unknown persons, the Russian opposition leader's team said on Thursday.
Spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh claimed that the drivers “were called by unknown people and threatened not to take Alexey's body anywhere.”
Yarmysh said she was told that “no hearse was ready to take the body there.”
Navalny's team also had difficulty finding a location for his funeral, which will take place on Friday at 2 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in Moscow's Maryino district, where the opposition leader lived. He will then be buried at Borisov Cemetery.
Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images
The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in Moscow, where Navalny's funeral will take place.
Many venues said they were at capacity or refused booking as soon as Navalny's name was mentioned, while one venue specifically said they were banned from working with Navalny's team, Yarmysh said on Tuesday.
The team had originally planned a public farewell and funeral for the late Russian opposition leader on Thursday, but was told there were “no available cemetery workers who could dig a grave,” said Ivan Zhdanov, the director of the anti-corruption body. Navalny Foundation Wednesday.
Navalnaya blames Putin for her husband's death
Navalny died on February 16 in the penal colony in Siberia where he was serving a 19-year sentence after being found guilty in August of creating an extremist community, funding extremist activists and various other crimes. He was already serving an 11-and-a-half-year sentence in a maximum-security facility on fraud and other charges that he had always denied and which he claimed were politically motivated.
Russia's prison service said Navalny “felt unwell” “after a walk” in his Siberian penal colony and lost consciousness “almost immediately.”
Navalny was Russia's most prominent opposition leader and for years criticized Putin, who has been in power for nearly a quarter of a century, at great personal risk. His death came just weeks before the country's presidential election, set to begin nationwide on March 15, widely seen by the international community as little more than a formality that will ensure Putin a fifth term in power.
Navalny's death sparked grief and anger around the world, but also in Russia, where even the smallest political disagreement carries great risks.
He returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated after being poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. Upon his arrival, Navalny was quickly arrested – on charges he dismissed as politically motivated – and spent the rest of his life in prison.
His wife Yulia Navalnaya blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for her husband's death.
“Putin killed my husband,” she said during a speech in the European Parliament on Wednesday. “On his orders, Alexey was tortured for three years,” she added, referring to the time Navalny spent in prison.
“He was starved in a tiny stone cell, cut off from the outside world and denied visits and phone calls. And then even letters. And then they killed him. Even after that, they mistreated his body,” she said, while Navalny’s team claims the body was held to pressure the family to agree to a private funeral.
The Kremlin has rejected all allegations of involvement in Navalny's death.
Navalnaya also said she was worried that police would crack down on mourners at Friday's funeral.
More than 400 people were held at makeshift memorials to Navalny in 32 Russian cities, according to human rights monitoring group OVD-Info.
CNN's Anna Chernova contributed to this report.