Photos of the grave at Borisovskoye Cemetery showed a sea of flowers and garlands – and a Russian Orthodox cross with a photo of a smiling Navalny. According to authorities, the Russian president's opponent, Vladimir Putin, died on February 16 in a prison camp in the polar region.
Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, also attended the grave, which was covered in flowers and garlands, accompanied by her son's mother-in-law. On Saturday, journalists from the AFP news agency initially saw only a few visitors laying flowers at Navalny's grave. As the day progressed, more and more people came to the tomb. On Friday, mourners lined up for hours to say goodbye to the opposition politician.
Portal Navalny's mother and mother-in-law also visited the grave
Metal detectors at the entrance
Authorities installed metal detectors similar to those at airports at the entrance to the cemetery. The police searched those who wanted to say goodbye to Navalny. Authorities told mourners to “keep moving” as they placed white roses and carnations at the Kremlin critic’s grave.
Hundreds of people visit Navalny's grave
A day after the funeral of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Moscow, hundreds of people visited his grave again. Navalny's mother also visited the grave.
Navalny's team emphasized again on Friday night, after the funeral, that the struggle of the opposition, which fled into exile abroad, against corruption and Putin's power apparatus would continue. Navalny's legacy will remain alive “as long as there are millions of people in Russia and the world who are not indifferent to him. That’s why you can’t give up.”
Russia rejects an independent investigation into the death. According to the death certificate, the convict died of “natural causes”, said diplomat Aleksandr Volgarev, representative of the Russian OSCE mission in Vienna. “We consider that demands for 'transparent and independent investigations' are nothing more than gross interference in the internal affairs of our country,” he responded to demands, including from Austria.
Dozens of prisons across the country
On the day of Navalny's funeral, mourning events took place across the country and dozens of arrests. Civil rights portal OVD.info reported on Saturday morning that the number of arrests exceeded 100, spread across 20 cities, including around 20 people in Novosibirsk alone.
In Moscow on Friday, thousands of people gathered at the church and cemetery for the funeral. Many shouted “Putin is a murderer!” and “Russia without Putin”. Relatives, supporters and human rights activists accuse Putin of murdering his opponent in the prison camp.
Portal Thousands of people came to say goodbye on Friday
According to authorities, Navalny died on February 16 in the penal camp with the unofficial name “Arctic Wolf” in the Siberian Arctic region of Yamal. The circumstances of his death are unclear. The politician, who was weakened by a poison attack in 2020 and repeated solitary confinement in the camp, reportedly collapsed during a visit to the prison's freezing courtyard and died despite attempts to resuscitate him. According to Navalny's team, the death certificate lists “natural” causes as the reason.
Name Navalny persecuted as “extremist symbolism”.
Meanwhile, the Russian state apparently continues to take action against Navalny and his name. Courts in some regions of the Russian Federation classified the name Navalny as prohibited extremist symbolism. Based on this, the people who wrote their names on posters were sentenced to administrative punishments in recent days, reported the NGO First Department, which specializes in political justice.
Navalny's funeral ceremony as a protest
Despite the large police presence and repression, thousands of people in Moscow attended the funeral of Kremlin opponent Navalny.
The renowned NGO referred to trials in which people were sentenced to administrative arrest following commemorative events for using the surname Navalny. The reason for this was that the politician's name and surname referred to “extremist and banned organizations”, such as Navalny's people, the Fund for Combating Corruption (FBK) and the Fund for the Protection of Civil Rights (FSPG) and , therefore, itself as extremist symbolism must be evaluated.
Suspicious instructions from Moscow
Specifically, such cases occurred in Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Murmansk and Ulyanovsk, according to a statement from the NGO. Therefore, we cannot speak of “local excesses”. On the contrary, it is based on an instruction from Moscow.
It is not yet clear whether Russian law enforcement authorities will also sanction the mention of Navalny's name on social media. “Theoretically, they could also use this interpretation against those who wrote on social media and even against those who were at the funeral,” said Dmitri Sair-Bek, from the First Department organization, in response to an APA request. However, he does not expect this at the moment. The NGO wants to continue monitoring decisions in this regard.
Russian Orthodox Church specified minimum burial
The funeral itself was also controlled by the Russian Orthodox Church. This is what theologian Regina Elsner, professor of Eastern Church and ecumenical studies at the University of Münster, told the German Catholic News Agency (KNA). Apparently, there was a ban on funeral prayers in the church, which are actually required on the third and ninth days after death: “Not a single prayer of this kind was officially performed.”
Instead, believers were checked whether they ordered prayers for Navalny in churches, Elsner said. No parish was authorized to offer the funeral; the church leadership decided where it would take place. According to the theologian, the selected community “does not represent any threat to the system”. The clergy gave the burial a minimum of space, “so that there would not be the impression of a special funeral.”
The clerics did not offer any words of thanks nor did they prepare a dignified farewell befitting Navalny's importance. The church choir was not allowed to sing during the service, but people in line on the street sang liturgical songs. The Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate has not commented on Navalny or the circumstances of his detention or death. According to Elsner, the church leadership tried to convey distance from politics on the one hand, but on the other hand it also conveyed proximity to the State.