Crowds turn out in Moscow for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Under a heavy police presence, thousands of people bade farewell Friday to Alexei Navalny at his funeral in Moscow after his still-unexplained death two weeks ago in an Arctic penal colony.

Navalny was buried at a cemetery in the snowy south-eastern outskirts of the capital after a short Russian Orthodox ceremony, with vast crowds waiting outside the church and then streaming to the fresh grave of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic with flowers and anti-government chants.

Workers carry the coffin and a portrait of Alexei Navalny out of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows.Credit: AP

Although riot police set up barricades at both the church and cemetery, no detentions were reported.

Australia’s ambassador to Russia, John Geering, joined other Western diplomats among the large crowd at the funeral who had chanted “we are not afraid”, “Putin is a murderer”, “no war” and “Russia will be free”, in a rare public anti-Kremlin demonstration.

Geering, who was posted to Moscow last year, said on social media he had been “profoundly impacted and moved” by the depth of grief shown by the thousands of mourners at the funeral.

“Those remembering his legacy at the funeral carry on his hopes for a better Russia. Australia and the world shares your grief and your hopes,” he posted.

The service followed a battle with authorities over the release of his body. His team said several Moscow churches refused to hold the funeral for the man who crusaded against official corruption and organised massive protests. Many Western leaders blamed the death on the Russian leader, an accusation the Kremlin angrily rejected.

Navalny’s widow, Yulia, who was not seen at the funeral, thanked him for “26 years of absolute happiness”.

“I don’t know how to live without you, but I will try to do it in a way that you up there are proud of me and happy for me,” she wrote on Instagram.

Navalny’s team eventually got permission from the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, which was surrounded by crowd-control barriers.

Police (at right) observe as people walk towards the Borisovskoye Cemetery for Alexei Navalny’s funeral ceremony in Moscow.Credit: AP

As his coffin was removed from the hearse and taken inside the church, the crowd waiting outside broke into respectful applause and then chanted: “Navalny! Navalny!” Some also shouted, “You weren’t afraid, neither are we!” and later “No to war!” “Russia without Putin!” and “Russia will be free!”

Western diplomats, including US ambassador Lynne Tracy, were among those who attended, along with presidential hopefuls Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova. Both wanted to run against Putin in the upcoming presidential elections and opposed his war in Ukraine; neither was allowed on the ballot.

Images from inside the church showed an open casket with Navalny’s body covered with red and white flowers, and his parents, Lyudmila and Anatoly, sitting beside it.

Navalny’s closest associates live outside Russia and made comments in a livestream of the funeral on his YouTube channel, their voices occasionally cracking with emotion.

“Those people who follow what is happening, it is of course obvious to them that this man is a hero of our country, whom we will not forget,” said Nadezhda Ivanova of Kaliningrad, who was outside the church with other supporters. “What was done to him is incredibly difficult to accept and get through it.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged those gathering in Moscow and other places not to break the law, saying any “unauthorized (mass) gatherings” are violations.

After the short church service, thousands marched to the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery, where the police were also out in force.

With the casket open, Navalny’s mother and father stroked and kissed his head. A large crowd gathered at the cemetery’s gates, chanting: “Let us in to say goodbye!”

Riot police guards next to a van with the coffin of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.Credit: AP

The coffin was then lowered into the ground. In keeping with his irreverent sense of humor, music from Terminator 2 was played, a movie his allies said he considered “the best in the world”.

Mourners streamed by his open grave, tossing handfuls of soil onto the coffin as a large crowd waited at the cemetery’s entrance. As dusk fell, workers shovelled dirt into the grave while Lyudmila Navalnaya watched. A mound of flowers, funeral wreaths, candles and a portrait of Navalny sat nearby.

She had spent eight days trying to get authorities to release her son’s body following his February 16 death at Penal Colony No.3 in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1900 kilometres northeast of Moscow.

Even on Friday, the morgue where the body was being held delayed its release, according to Ivan Zhdanov, Navalny’s close ally and director of his Anti-Corruption Foundation.

People in Moscow gather near the church where Navalny’s funeral was held.Credit: AP

Authorities originally said they couldn’t turn over the body because they needed to conduct post-mortem tests. Navalnaya made a video appeal to Putin to release it so she could bury her son with dignity.

Russian authorities still haven’t announced the cause of death for Navalny, who was 47. His team cited paperwork Lyudmila Navalnaya saw that listed “natural causes.”

At least one funeral director said he had been “forbidden” to work with Navalny’s supporters, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media. They also struggled to find a hearse.

“Unknown people are calling up people and threatening them not to take Alexei’s body anywhere,” Yarmysh said Thursday.

Lyudmila Navalnaya and Anatoly Navalny, the parents of Alexei Navalny, arrive at the church.Credit: AP

Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.

His Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his regional offices were designated as “extremist organisations” by the Russian government that same year.

Yulia Navalnaya accused Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of trying to block a public funeral.

“We don’t want any special treatment — just to give people the opportunity to say farewell to Alexei in a normal way,” she wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Moscow’s authorities refused permission for a separate memorial event for Navalny and slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Friday, citing COVID-19 restrictions, according to former presidential hopeful Duntsova. Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, was shot to death as he walked on a bridge adjacent to the Kremlin on the night of February 27, 2015.

Yarmysh also urged Navalny’s supporters around the world to lay flowers in his honour Friday.

“Everyone who knew Alexei says what a cheerful, courageous and honest person he was,” Yarmysh said Thursday. “But the greater truth is that even if you never met Alexei, you knew what he was like, too. You shared his investigations, you went to rallies with him, you read his posts from prison. His example showed many people what to do when even when things were scary and difficult.”

AP with Rob Harris

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