Navalny Hundreds line up in Moscow to visit the grave

Navalny: Hundreds line up in Moscow to visit the grave of a Putin critic

Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images

Mourners queue to visit the grave of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Borisovsky Cemetery in Moscow.

CNN –

Hundreds of people flocked to the grave of the late Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

Images from OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights group that monitors Russian repression, show a long line of people queuing at Navalny's grave and laying flowers at Borisovsky Cemetery in Moscow.

“People leave flowers, say goodbye, mourn,” the group reported.

According to Portal, Navalny's mother Lyudmila was among the mourners on Sunday and visited her son's grave on the second day, accompanied by the mother of his widow Yulia.

Ulf Mauder/picture-alliance/dpa/AP

Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony last month.

Thousands of mourners defied the threat of arrest and gathered for Navalny's funeral on Friday, two weeks after he died at age 47 in an Arctic penal colony.

There was heavy security and some in the crowd chanted his name or anti-Putin slogans.

The opposition leader's death sparked condemnation from world leaders and accusations from his aides that he was assassinated, although the Kremlin has denied any involvement in his death.

On the day of Navalny's funeral, at least 103 people were arrested in 20 Russian cities, OVD-Info reported on Sunday. According to the group, riot police were present who searched and filmed the mourners and made them pass through metal detectors.

“Some of those who came said they hid flowers under their coats along the way, fearing arrests along the way,” they said. “That didn’t stop people from coming and saying goodbye.”

Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images

There was tight security at his funeral, but there were also defiant chants from the crowd.

Navalny returned to Russia in 2021 after spending months recovering in Germany from Novichok poisoning, which a Bellingcat-CNN investigation found was carried out by Russian intelligence.

He was arrested immediately upon arrival and spent the rest of his life behind bars on charges he dismissed as politically motivated.