The funeral of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, who died on February 16 in prison, will take place on Friday March 1 at 2 p.m. (12 p.m. in Paris) in Moscow, his team announced Wednesday February 28 on social networks. “The funeral service for Alexei will be held at the church (…) in Marino [Moscow district where Alexei Navalny lived] on March 1 at 2 p.m. The funeral will take place at the Borisovsky cemetery in the southeast of the capital, wrote Kira Yarmysh, spokesperson for the deceased opponent.
The circumstances of Alexeï Navalny’s death on February 16, which caused great emotion across the world, remain unclear. According to the Russian Prison Service, he lost his life following a sudden malaise “after a walk.” Several Western countries, including the United States and Germany, have accused Vladimir Putin of being responsible.
According to Ivan Zhdanov, one of the opponent’s close collaborators, the burial will take place at 4 p.m. (2 p.m. in Paris), nearly 20 kilometers from the red walls of the Kremlin.
No reaction from Vladimir Putin
After several days of waiting, his body was returned to his mother. Mr. Putin, for his part, has still not reacted to the death of his main detractor, who narrowly survived a poisoning in 2020 for which he already held the head of the Kremlin responsible, despite the latter’s denials, who is due to speak to the Federal Assembly on Thursday for his annual address to the nation.
Since the handing over of the opponent’s body to his mother on Saturday, the team of the former number one critic of the Kremlin had been looking for a place for a “public farewell” but was “refused” any request, the authorities putting pressure according to them at funeral sites. These funerals could mobilize supporters of the former opponent of Vladimir Putin in large numbers and thus be embarrassing for the master of the Kremlin, who is preparing for a new coronation at the end of the presidential election without real opposition scheduled for March 15 to 17. “Everywhere they refused to give us anything. In some places we were told it was forbidden,” Mr. Zhdanov explained in a statement on Telegram, castigating “the Kremlin and [Sergueï] Sobyanin”, mayor of Moscow and close to Vladimir Putin.
An agreement for his release under negotiation shortly before his death
Alexeï Navalny’s team said Monday that an agreement to exchange the opponent was “in progress and in its final phase” with the Russian authorities, before his death ten days ago. She assures that the opponent “should have been released in the days to come”. According to Maria Pevtchikh, another close collaborator of Mr. Navalny, he should have been exchanged along with “two American citizens” detained by Moscow for a Russian imprisoned in Germany.
According to Ms. Pevtchikh, her team had been “working” for two years to “get” Alexeï Navalny out of prison “at all costs”, on the basis of an exchange of “Russian spies for political prisoners” in Russia. Washington and Berlin were aware, she continued, deploring however that they “did nothing” despite initial “promises”. Neither the United States nor Germany have confirmed.