As of: March 1, 2024, 5:22 a.m
By: Tadhg Nagel
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Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny will be buried on Friday.
How will the funeral take place?
Are there threats of attacks from Putin's authorities?
All information at a glance.
Moscow – The late Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny will be buried in southeast Moscow on Friday (March 1).
But Navalny's funeral is unlikely to be more than a moment of quiet mourning; it is more likely to be a highly political event.
The most important questions and answers at a glance.
How will Alexei Navalny's funeral go?
A service for Navalny is scheduled to take place on Friday at 2 p.m. local time (12 p.m. CET) in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in the Marjino district of Moscow, as his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch announced on the short message service X.
According to Russian media reports, the opposition activist lived in the area until 2017.
In which Moscow cemetery will Navalny be buried?
Navalny will then be buried at around 4 p.m. local time at the Borisovsky Cemetery in southeast Moscow.
According to spokeswoman Yarmysh, the cemetery is at least half an hour by subway from the center of Moscow.
In memory of Navalny: flowers next to a photo of the late Kremlin critic.
© IMAGO
Who will attend Navalny's funeral?
It was not clear in advance who would come to the memorial service and funeral.
Many supporters and confidants of the late Navalny are also members of the opposition;
some of them are abroad.
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Is there a risk of repression from Putin's authorities?
The Kremlin critic's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, also expressed concern in advance about possible violence and arrests at the ceremony.
She doesn't yet know whether the funeral will be "peaceful or whether the police will arrest those who came to say goodbye to my husband," she said on Wednesday (February 28) during a speech in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg .
Navalny's team nevertheless called for people to attend the meeting.
Should Navalny originally be buried on the prison grounds of an Arctic penal colony?
According to Navalny's team, authorities in the Arctic region where Navalny died in a penal colony had actually threatened to bury him on prison grounds.
The aim was to get his mother to agree to a funeral within the family circle.
The Kremlin has denied involvement in such events.
What hurdles were there leading up to the ceremony?
Did Putin prevent an earlier funeral?
Navalny's team actually wanted to bury the dead man on Thursday (February 29).
However, according to one of Navalny's closest confidants, Ivan Zhdanov, no funeral home could be found in Moscow for that date.
Zhdanov claimed that this was related to the “State of the Nation Address” that Putin gave that day.
In the same video published on the Navalny team's social media channels, Zhdanov also accused the authorities of interfering.
The aim was to ensure that there would only be a “quiet, family funeral”.
If a larger venue was booked for a public memorial service, the Kremlin threatened to “disrupt everything.”
After all, the Russian government is “clear that no one will be interested in Putin and his speech on the day of Alexei’s farewell,” Zhdanov wrote on social media.
In addition, according to Jarmysch, there is still no hearse available for the ceremony as of Thursday afternoon, as she announced on Platform X.
Funeral homes were threatened by unknown people.
However, the team is sure that a solution will be found in time.
How did Alexei Navalny die?
According to official information, Alexei 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 had already survived a poison attack in 2020 and was physically weakened due to constant solitary confinement in the camp.
Because of these circumstances, his supporters and many international observers believe that the term "natural" cause of death, as should be stated on the death certificate, is not appropriate.
However, the Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR assumes that a blood clot was the cause of Navalny's death.
There was also speculation that the KGB was involved.
What significance did Alexei Navalny have for Russia and the fight against Vladimir Putin?
Navalny was Russia's main opposition figure and Putin's fiercest opponent.
He repeatedly initiated political debates and campaigned for democracy, even after his arrest.
In September 2011, the former lawyer founded the now world-famous anti-corruption foundation to uncover the embezzlement of public funds.
Over the last decade he has become the spearhead of the Russian opposition.
Yarmysch recalled Navalny's achievements in a video on Thursday.
It was published on the X account of Navalny's widow, Julia Navalnaya.
Navalny did not shy away from danger, was always “honest and courageous” and “told the truth, on this channel and in general, and kept his word.”
His loss was painful “not only for the people who knew him personally and not only for abstract Russia or the world,” because he gave people hope.
What criticism is there of Alexei Navalny?
Was he for the Ukraine war?
Despite these achievements, there was repeated criticism of Russia's best-known opposition figure.
Earlier statements in particular often contradicted the image of a champion of liberal democracy.
Jade McGlynn, a researcher specializing in Russian politics at King's College London, told
Euronews
that Navalny had controversial views about Muslims in the Caucasus, Georgians and Central Asian migrants in Russia.
He also initially defended the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
However, he later condemned the war in Ukraine.
(tpn)