Even the day after Navalny’s funeral in Moscow, people continue to say goodbye to the Russian Kremlin opponent. The situation at the cemetery was quiet. More than 100 people are said to have been arrested across the country on Friday.
The day after the funeral of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in a prison camp, people said goodbye to him at the Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow – despite the police presence. The security forces allowed mourners to linger at the grave unhindered and lay flowers, as reported by independent Russian media, to which the dpa news agency refers.
Photos of the gravesite showed a sea of flowers and wreaths as well as a Russian Orthodox cross with a photo of Navalny. Navalny, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s fiercest opponent, died in a prison camp in the polar region on February 16, according to authorities.
“You can’t give up”
In Moscow, thousands of people gathered at the church and cemetery for the funeral service on Friday. A crowd gathered near the cemetery chanted slogans such as “No to war,” “We will not forget you” and “We will not forgive.”
In the evening – after the funeral – Navalny’s team emphasized again that the fight by the opposition, who had 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 it. That is why we must not give up.”
According to OWD information, more than 100 arrests in 20 cities
On the day of Navalny’s funeral, there were mourning events across the country, with numerous arrests. The civil rights portal OWD-Info reported that the number of arrests was more than 100, spread across 20 cities, including around 20 people in Novosibirsk alone.
In the evening, OWD-Info reported 128 arrests in 19 cities. “There may be more arrestees in any police station than in the published lists,” it said. According to the dpa news agency, in most cases those affected were released after a short time.
Scholz praises the courage of the participants
Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised the courage of the Russians who took part in Navalny’s funeral in Moscow. They “took a big risk – for freedom,” Scholz wrote on X. Navalny paid for his fight for democracy and freedom with his life.
Diplomats from Western countries could be seen in the line of mourners yesterday, including the German ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, his French colleague and the US ambassador. Russian presidential candidates Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova, who were ultimately not admitted, also appeared.