As of: February 29, 2024, 8:21 p.m
By: Richard Strobl
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Press
Split
Alexei Navalny will be buried in Moscow on Friday.
Russian authorities are already taking action.
The fear of violence against mourners is increasing.
Moscow – Russia is facing an explosive Friday.
The late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny will be buried in the afternoon.
The fear of violence by Russian authorities against mourners is great.
And Vladimir Putin's power apparatus is already preparing.
One day before the planned funeral of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, the police in Moscow were in position.
Police patrols were spotted around the Borisovskoye cemetery in the southeast of the Russian capital on Thursday.
According to independent media, officers also checked the IDs and bags of passersby who wanted to enter the cemetery.
The officials said they wanted to “prevent terrorist operations.”
Putin's power apparatus is preparing for Navalny's funeral
In addition, numerous barriers were brought to the cemetery grounds.
In addition, external surveillance cameras were installed on every lamp post, reports the exile portal
Meduza
.
According to the report, special antennas were also installed that could be used as jammers.
According to reports, the police are already increasing patrols in the nearest subway station.
Police officers stand guard at the Borisovskoye cemetery, where the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is scheduled to take place on March 1, 2024.
© dpa
Arrangements are also apparently being made in the church where the funeral service will take place.
Posters about the ban on video and audio recordings were hung up and a surveillance camera was installed above the altar, the report says.
Police barriers were set up at the entrance to the church.
Navalny's funeral sensitive for Putin: Apparently open threats at the university
According to a church official, “most likely only relatives and friends will be allowed to attend the funeral service.”
This information is not confirmed and contradicts the statements made by the Navalny team.
This has called on people to come to the memorial service and funeral of the opposition figure in Moscow this Friday, despite the expected police presence.
Everyone to whom Navalny's political work meant something should come.
A police car blocks a road to the gate of the Borisovskoye cemetery, where the funeral of Russian opposition leader Navalny is scheduled to take place.
© dpa
In addition, the authorities have apparently warned schools and universities not to attend Navalny's memorial service or funeral.
Students at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration have
been threatened with “immediate expulsion” from the university following the
Medzua report.
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Navalny's funeral casts shadows: team wants to report live
Navalny's team wants to report live on the Internet about the memorial service in the southeastern Marjino district as well as about the funeral and recommended that guests arrive early.
A large security presence is expected - and there are fears that uniformed officers could block access to Navalny's supporters.
The widow Yulia Navalnaya also spread the call to come to the funeral service.
Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, received her son's body on Saturday after days of demanding that the authorities hand him over to her.
She refused a secret burial initially requested by the authorities.
In recent days, Navalny's team had been looking for a location for the memorial service and complained that they were being hindered by the Russian authorities.
According to Russian Orthodox custom, it is actually customary to bury the dead after three days and to lay out their bodies in an open coffin beforehand so that mourners can say goodbye.
However, a hall for such a farewell ritual was not made available, wrote Ivan Zhdanov, the director of the anti-corruption fund founded by Navalny.
The Borisovskoye cemetery, where the funeral of Russian opposition leader Navalny is scheduled to take place on March 1, 2024 © dpa
Putin's apparatus continues to obstruct Navalny's funeral
Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch also complained on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that the authorities were further hindering the preparations for the funeral service.
It has still not been possible to organize a hearse to bring Navalny's body to the church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Relieve my grief" in the Marjino district.
The funeral service there is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. local time (12 p.m. CET), before burial is planned at the cemetery, about half an hour's walk away.
But the Moscow funeral homes received threatening calls from unknown people who warned them not to transport the body, as Yarmysch wrote.
According to official information, Navalny died on February 16 at the age of just 47 in a prison camp north of the Arctic Circle.
The sharp critic of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was physically very weakened by a poison attack in 2020 and constant solitary confinement in the camp.
His supporters and many international observers therefore agree that there can be no question of a “natural” cause of death, as is stated on the death certificate.
(dpa/rist)