The Russian police arrested at least 56 people this Friday in fourteen cities in this country during the farewell day of the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, who was buried after dying two weeks ago in an Arctic prison.
According to OVD-Info, an organization that protects the rights of detainees, the cities with the highest number of arrests are Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Moscow, with 14, 10 and 6 detainees, respectively.
Police also made arrests in Voronezh, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladikavkaz, Saint Petersburg, Ulan-Ude and Sochi, among others.
Among those detained is the vice president of the Moscow branch of the opposition party Yabloko, Andrei Morev, arrested by the police in the Moscow subway after the funeral, indicated OVD-Info.
As Morev told the Telegram channel Mozhem obyasnit (We can explain), law enforcement officers arrested him and a colleague at the Mariino station, near the cemetery, and have not yet charged him.
Two other people were detained in the vicinity of the cemetery, according to journalist Alexandr Pliuschev and the Telegram channel Avtozak Live, dedicated to reporting on arrests.
According to the channel, one of them was arrested after shouting “Who killed Navalny?”
Massive funeral
Tens of thousands of Russians came today, with flowers in their hands and shouts of “Russia will be free”, “Russia without Putin”, “Navalni”, “Liosha (short for Alexei), we are with you”, to Navalni’s funeral in the Borisovo cemetery in the Russian capital.
The lines to say goodbye to Navalny stretched for several kilometers, scenes that had not been seen in this country for many years. In anticipation of such a massive display of affection, the Orthodox church of Máriino woke up surrounded by an unprecedented police cordon made up of hundreds of law enforcement officers.
Yulia: thank you for 26 years of absolute happiness
Yulia said goodbye to her husband this Friday with a message in X, given the impossibility of attending the funeral, and thanked him for the “26 years of absolute happiness” they had together.
“Thank you for 26 years of absolute happiness. And even during the last three years of happiness (when Navalny was in prison). For your love, for your support, for making me laugh even from prison, for always thinking of me,” Navalnaya wrote from exile.
“I don’t know how to live without you, but I will try to make sure you are happy and proud of me up there,” he added.
Yulia was convinced that she will see her husband again “someday”
Politicians and diplomats attend the funeral
Among the personalities who attended the funeral were Yevgeny Roizman, former mayor of the Ural city of Yekaterinburg, as well as some foreign diplomats, including the ambassadors of the United States, Germany and France.
Boris Nadezhdin, a candidate for the Russian Presidency, recently vetoed by the Electoral Commission of this country, also attended Navalny’s farewell in a church in the southeast of the Russian capital.
“People are afraid, but they want to overcome it,” the opposition politician told EFE.
Nadezhdin assured that Navalny’s death is “a tragic event for millions of Russians who supported him.”
“We had a common goal, that democracy triumphed in Russia and that Russia became a normal country,” he said.
Large police deployment
Navalni’s farewell took place amid strict security measures and an unprecedented police deployment in the Mariino neighborhood.
Both next to the temple, where the burning chapel was installed, and in the cemetery, metal fences and a strong police force were installed.
In addition, multiple surveillance cameras and other devices that can serve as internet and mobile phone signal inhibitors were placed on the cemetery lampposts.
The thousands of Navalni’s followers waited patiently with flowers in their hands for the arrival of the coffin and when the politician’s body was introduced into the church they began to chant his name.
Later, pacifist cries could be heard such as “You were not afraid, and neither were we” and “No to war.”
After the wake in the church, which lasted just over half an hour, without the majority of those gathered being able to access the interior of the temple, the politician’s body was transferred to the Borisovo cemetery for burial.
The funeral live
The long line of people who came to the Orthodox temple in the Moscow neighborhood of Mariino was shown by Navalny’s team on their social networks.
“Come say goodbye to Alexei Navalny if you are in Moscow. Those who for various reasons are not there to be able to do it will thank you,” wrote one of Navalny’s collaborators Leonid Volkov, currently in exile, in X.
At 12:00 p.m. (09:00 GMT) the allies of the deceased politician also began a live broadcast from the place of the farewell.
Borisovo, a discreet and ancient cemetery
The Borisovo cemetery, where Navalny will be buried at 4:00 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. GMT), covers an area of 4 hectares and is one of the oldest cemeteries in Moscow, with a history dating back to 1550.
The cemetery does not house many personalities. Among the best-known tombs are those of the Soviet artist Yuri Sherstnev or the scientist Guennadi Arakelov.
The Troyekurovskoye cemetery, in the west of Moscow, was another of the places that was considered in the press to house Navalny’s body.
Numerous Russian personalities, including military personnel, artists, cosmonauts and politicians, are buried there, including the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, murdered in 2015.
Kremlin warnings
The Kremlin warned today that those who participate in unauthorized demonstrations in tribute to the deceased opponent will be punished.
“We want to remember that there is a law that must be followed: any unauthorized gathering will constitute a violation of the law,” Russian Presidency spokesman Dmitri Peskov said at his daily press conference.
Peskov thus responded to a question about the intention of Navalny’s followers to organize events in his memory throughout the country and abroad.
The Kremlin spokesperson also did not want to evaluate Navalni’s figure as a politician or send a message to the opponent’s family, something that journalists asked him during the press conference.
The opponent’s team published a list of cities around the world where ceremonies for the Russian politician were planned today.
“We call on you to place flowers at memorials (to Navalni) around the world,” says a message from the politician’s team, accompanied by the list of cities that will participate in the farewell and which include Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, among them. others.
Those close to and co-religionists of Navalny, winner of the 2021 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Conscience from the European Parliament, directly accuse the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, of ordering what they consider the “murder” of the opponent, founder.
BY:TTU
