Hundreds of mourners defy arrest at Alexei Navalny’s grave
Mourners, some in tears, queued outside Borisovo cemetery in southern Moscow on Saturday afternoon.
Hundreds of Russians visited the grave of dead Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Saturday, risking arrest to pay tribute to the anti-corruption campaigner for a second day running.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic for more than a decade, died last month in an Arctic prison colony, where he was serving a 19-year sentence on “extremism” charges largely seen as political retribution for his opposition to the Kremlin.
Mourners, some in tears, queued outside Borisovo cemetery in southern Moscow on Saturday afternoon, as more walked from the nearby metro station carrying flowers and placards in honour of Navalny. Despite warnings from the Kremlin that they faced arrest, thousands had come out for the official funeral service on Friday.
Authorities erected airport-style security scanners at the entrance to the cemetery, and police on Saturday were filmed frisking and searching those who had come to pay homage to the Kremlin critic.
Officers ordered mourners to “keep moving” as they laid stacks of red and white roses and carnations on Navalny’s grave. His mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, was among those who visited on Saturday, accompanied by Alla Abrosimova, the mother of Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya.
Authorities said Navalny, 47, had died of “natural causes” after losing consciousness following a walk in his Arctic prison colony.
But Navalny’s aides have accused the Russian authorities of ordering him killed, and Western leaders have said Putin carries “responsibility” for his death.
Some supporters laid placards with Navalny slogans and others brought mementos – including a yellow rubber duck, a symbol of a major Navalny investigation into alleged corruption of former president and long-time Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev.
Natalia, a 50-year-old artist who declined to give her surname, said she felt “grief, despair and hope”, on Saturday “After all, Alexei asked us not to despair, and fight,” she said at the cemetery. Another mourner, Vadim, 52, said he felt “sorrow and bitterness at the loss of a worthy man of our time”.
He urged Navalny’s supporters to follow the Kremlin critic’s example “and continue to live the way Alexei would have wanted – to make people in our country and around the world live more happily”.
Thousands of Navalny’s followers had queued for hours to pay their respects on Friday.
As they streamed from a nearby church to the cemetery, some chanted “No to war!” and other pro-Navalny slogans, including branding Putin a “murderer” and calling for the release of political prisoners.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had on Friday said anybody who appeared to be taking part in an “unsanctioned” rally would be detained. Rights monitoring group OVD-Info said Russian police on Friday arrested at least 128 people attending tributes to Navalny in 19 cities.
Yulia Navalnaya, the couple’s two children and his brother all live abroad and did not attend the funeral, where they could have been arrested for their own opposition to Putin.
AFP
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