The funeral of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny will take place on March 1 in Moscow, as announced this Wednesday by the politician's team, after reporting difficulties for two days in finding a space to hold a public farewell to the opponent.
The information was confirmed on the X social network by Navalny's spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, who announced that Both the mass of the deceased and the politician's burial will take place on Friday.
The burning chapel will be installed in the cathedral in the Moscow neighborhood of Mariino, in the southeast of the city, and the burial in the Borisovo necropolis in the same area.
The opposition's followers will be able to say goodbye starting at 2:00 p.m. Moscow time, said Yarmish, who asked everyone to “arrive in advance” to the cathedral. Another close collaborator of Navalny, Iván Zhdanov, recalled that The opposition's allies initially planned to organize his funeral on February 29.
(Also read: Russia: authorities deliver the body of opponent Alexei Navalny to his mother)
“But it turned out that on February 29 there is not a single person available to dig a grave. That on February 28 and March 1 it is possible to do it, but on February 29 the graves are not dug,” he wrote in X .
He immediately added that the reason for this was the Russian President Vladimir Putin's State of the Nation Address set precisely for February 29.
“In the Kremlin they understand that no one would be interested in Putin with his speech on the day of Alexei's farewell,” he said.
According to Ivan Jdanov, one of the opposition's collaborators, The burial will take place about 20 km from the Kremlin walls.
Since the opponent's body was handed over to his mother last Saturday, the team of the once main Kremlin critic was looking for a place to offer a “public goodbye” to Navalny, but they were “denied” multiple requests, according to his collaborators.
Those close to the deceased politician assured that the authorities had exerted pressure regarding the place where the funeral should take place.
(Also: Who was Alexei Navalny? The Russian opponent of Vladimir Putin who died in prison)
The funerals They could mobilize numerous Navalny sympathizers and this could be annoying for the Russian president Vladimir Putin ahead of the presidential elections from March 15 to 17.
“Everywhere they refused to give us anything. In some places, they told us that it was prohibited,” Jdanov explained in a statement posted on Telegram, criticizing the “Kremlin and (Sergei) Sobyanin,” the mayor of Moscow, close to Vladimir Putin.
(You can read: Alexei Navalny: the strongest phrases against Putin from the late Russian opposition leader)
You cannot defeat him thinking that he is a man of principles and morals. He is not like that, and Alexei realized that a long time ago.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the Russian opponent, also expressed this Wednesday before the European Parliament her fear that the police may arrest people during her husband's funeral.
“I don't know if (the funeral) will be peaceful or if the police will arrest those who are present,” Navalnaya told the European Parliament plenary, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the “leader of a criminal organization.”
In his opinion, it will not be possible to affect Putin with sanctions that are not fundamentally different from those already adopted. “You can't defeat him thinking that he is a man of principles and morals. He is not like that, and Alexei realized that a long time ago,” said Navalnaya, for whom Putin is a “bloodthirsty gangster.”
“Alexei was tortured for three years,” the widow assured before the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Putin “must answer for everything he has done to Alexei,” the widow added.
(More news: 'The polar wolf' or 'arctic hell': this is the prison where Alexei Navalny died)
The circumstances of Alexei Navalny's death on February 16 in an Arctic prison remain unclear. According to the Russian prison services, he died after feeling unwell “after a walk.”
But the opposition's supporters and multiple Western leaders accused Putin of his death, some even alluding to a “murder” ordered after three years of detention.
(Keep reading: Russia rejects accusations linking the Kremlin to the death of Alexei Navalny)
This Monday, Navalny's allies revealed that The politician died in prison days before his exchange for the Chechen Vadim Krásikov, convicted in Germany for the murder of a Georgian citizen. The Kremlin claimed this Tuesday to have no information about the possible exchange.
AFP AND EFE
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