Johanna Geron/Portal
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, speaks at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on February 28, 2024.
CNN –
The wife of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said she was worried police would crack down on mourners after it was announced his funeral would be held in Moscow on Friday.
Yulia Navalnaya addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday, shortly after Navalny's aides announced they had arranged his funeral after spending more than a week trying to recover his body and find a suitable location.
“I thought that in the twelve days since Alexey's murder I would have time to prepare for this speech. But first we spent a week collecting Alexey's body and organizing his funeral. Then I chose the cemetery and the coffin,” Navalnaya said.
“I'm not sure yet if it will be peaceful or if the police will arrest those who came to say goodbye to my husband,” she added.
Navalny's death sparked grief and anger around the world, but also in Russia, where even the smallest political disagreement carries great risks. More than 400 people were held at makeshift memorials to Navalny in 32 Russian cities, according to human rights monitoring group OVD-Info.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, confirmed that his funeral would take place at the Borisov Cemetery in Moscow's Maryino district, where Navalny lived. She said the service would take place at 2 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God and urged mourners to arrive early.
Nalavny's aides said they began looking for a church shortly after his death, but many venues were unwilling to host his funeral.
“Everywhere they refused to give us anything. Somewhere they directly pointed out the ban,” Ivan Zdhanov, the director of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, wrote on X on Wednesday. “We don’t care about the message. Alexey must be buried.”
While Navalny's wife and team were in exile, his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, spent more than a week on a lonely mission in Siberia to recover her son's body from Russian authorities, whom she accused of “blackmailing” her by threatening to bury her son outside a funeral unless she agreed to the “terms of where, when and how” he should be buried. The Kremlin rejected their allegations.
Yulia Navalnaya told the European Parliament that they needed to act with renewed vigor against Russian President Vladimir Putin and learn from her husband's innovative methods.
She said the world “rushed to Ukraine's aid” in the early months of Russia's all-out invasion, but after two years of fighting, “there is a lot of exhaustion, a lot of blood, a lot of disappointment – and Putin hasn't gone anywhere.”
“Everything has already been used: weapons, money, sanctions. Nothing works. And the worst happened. Everyone has gotten used to war. Every now and then you start to say: Well, we have to come to an agreement with Putin anyway,” she said.
But she said her husband, who spent years documenting corruption in Russia, had shown that Putin was not invulnerable.
“That is the answer to the question. If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator. You have to stop being boring. “You cannot harm Putin with another resolution or another sanctions package that is no different from the previous ones,” she said.
Instead, she said European politicians must go after Putin's “friends, associates, the keepers of the mafia's money.” You and all of us have to fight against the criminal gangs.”
She called on lawmakers to “use the methods of fighting organized crime” and not the usual “political competition.”
“No diplomatic notes, but investigations into the financial machinations. Not worrying statements, but the search by mafia associates in your countries for discreet lawyers and financiers who help Putin and his friends hide money.”
Navalnaya's comments come at a time when Western officials have debated for months whether to redirect about 300 billion euros ($327 billion) of frozen Russian assets to help repair Ukraine's war-torn economy.
Navalnaya complained that her husband could no longer experience the Russia he wanted to build.
“My husband will never see what the beautiful Russia of the future will look like. But we have to see it. And I will try my best to make his dream come true. Evil will disappear and the beautiful future will come,” she said.