The thousands of people who had been queuing for hours in front of the Moscow church where the farewell of the opposition leader, Alexei Navalni, took place this Friday, received the body of the dissident, who died two weeks ago, with applause that seemed to have no end. in an Arctic prison under unclear circumstances.
It was feared that there could be delays because the morgue officials did not deliver the body to his family until an hour before the start of the ceremony, but finally the hearse arrived ten minutes before the start of the service, scheduled for 2 p.m. ( local time) – at 4 p.m. the burial took place at the Borisovo cemetery, in the same city.
During the passage of the hearse, both upon arrival and departure of the body to the cemetery, some shouts of “Alexei!” were also heard among the crowd. or “Navalni!”, combined with the throwing of carnations towards the vehicle.
Citizens were already forming a long queue around the Orthodox church in the Moscow neighborhood of Maryino at least three hours before the start of the funeral ceremony. Among the Muscovites who came to say goodbye to Navalni, defying the authorities’ warnings, people of all ages could be seen, some of whom were holding carnations and red roses in their hands. All this under the watchful eye of a large number of police officers, who deployed a strong security device. The Kremlin warned today that any unauthorized gathering in support of the late opposition leader violates the law.
“Navalni was our hero, our hope, the only one of a few who was so brave to go to the end and told people that Russia could change,” explained Yelena, a woman in her forties, before tears broke her. prevent you from continuing. “I don’t think Navalny was wrong to return to Russia (in January 2021, after recovering in Germany from Novichok poisoning). It was his mission. For me he was like the Russian Ché Guevara,” said Viacheslav, a Moscow retiree, in front of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, northeast of Moscow.
According to Yekaterina, Navalny was always “someone very alive.” He “chose his destiny and followed it without caring about the difficulties,” he added in a kilometer-long queue that goes around the block of the small Orthodox temple and continues two or three streets further.
Irina, who accompanied her husband Viacheslav, it was thought that there would be half an hour for the public to enter after the religious service, but apparently, no one from outside was finally able to enter.
Not far from the public buses brought by the law enforcement forces and the OMON (riot police) vans, young Ramazán said that he was not a follower of Navalni, but that he considered it an obligation to come and say goodbye to him. “He was a symbol of freedom. I am here above all because Navalni was brave. Now it will be very difficult for someone like him to take over from him.”
Once the service was over, they took the body to the Borisovo cemetery for burial, located two blocks from the church. Many brought candles that they lit in the street in Navalny’s honor and headed towards the cemetery.
Multiple surveillance cameras and other devices that can serve as internet and mobile phone signal inhibitors were also placed on the cemetery lampposts.
