MOSCOW — Thousands of Russians who risked arrest Friday to attend the Moscow funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were thwarted by a huge force of riot police, deployed to ensure that President Vladimir Putin’s charismatic rival was buried with as little fanfare as possible.
But the throngs of supporters who braved the security presence sent a powerful message that many Russians still support Navalny’s vision of a free, democratic Russia — and showed his pivotal role as a man who fearlessly defied Putin from prison, even as the Russian leader led his nation into war with Ukraine and a new era of repression and intolerance.
Navalny, a formidable opponent who fired up a generation of young Russians with his slogan “Russia will be free,” died in prison Feb. 16 at age 47, with an official investigation declaring that his death was due to “natural causes.” His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and aides have accused Putin of his “murder,” while many Western leaders have said Putin was responsible.
In photos: Alexei Navalny’s funeral draws thousands of mourners to Moscow church
Navalny’s supporters, blocked from entering the church by riot police and metal security barriers, applauded and chanted “Navalny! Navalny!” as his hearse arrived for the farewell service. Inside Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows Church, the service was carried out with what supporters said was unseemly haste.
After his mother had paid her respects, staff brusquely closed his coffin, even as those present pleaded to be allowed to say a proper farewell, according to Russian outlet Verstka.
“Please let me say goodbye! Well, please, don’t close the coffin!” mourners in the church pleaded with the funeral agents, according to a video posted by RusNews. “He is dear to us! Please, let us say goodbye!”
Among the few allowed in the church were Navalny’s parents, Anatoly Navalny and Lyudmila Navalnaya, the latter having endured an eight-day ordeal to recover her son’s body from a morgue in the Arctic town of Salekhard. Officials there had threatened that unless she agreed to a small private burial, they would allow the body to decompose or bury it at the Polar Wolf prison, where Navalny died, she said at the time.
Navalny’s widow Yulia, daughter Daria, son Zakhar and brother Oleg, as well as members of his political team, could not attend Friday’s funeral as they live abroad for security reasons.
Both his widow and mother had expressed their firm wish for an open funeral, with Yulia Navalnaya insistent that his supporters have the chance to say farewell in the traditional way, placing flowers on his coffin.
The Post’s Russia correspondent Francesca Ebel reported from Moscow March 1 as thousands gathered for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. (Video: Francesca Ebel, Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)
But authorities erected hundreds of metal security barriers, blockading the entrance to the church and nearby Borisovsky Cemetery, preventing the crowd from entering or placing flowers during the church service or graveside burial.
As Navalny’s body was lowered into the ground, a funeral band played Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” followed by the theme of the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” one of Navalny’s favorites.
A few of the thousands of citizens who flocked to the cemetery were later admitted and allowed to toss earth on the casket, but Navalny ally Ruslan Shaveddinov said the bulk of the crowd was blocked by police, “and it looks like the bigger part of people won’t be able to say goodbye today.”
The contrast between Navalny’s rushed funeral, attended by ardent supporters, and Putin’s grandiose state-of-the-nation address a day earlier could not have been starker. The Russian president stood alone on a vast stage as the country’s supreme leader and spoke for about two hours to an audience of Russia’s elite, many of whom appeared to struggle to stay awake.
Navalny’s widow bid farewell to him Friday in an Instagram message, saying, “Thank you for 26 years of absolute happiness. Yes, even the last three years of happiness,” referring to his imprisonment on returning to the country in 2021 after recovering in Germany from poisoning by Russian security agents.
She remembered that he made her laugh “even from prison,” and “you always thought about me.” Navalnaya, who has vowed to carry on his political work to oppose Putin and build a free, liberal Russia, wrote that she would do her best to make him happy and proud.
“I don’t know if I can handle it or not, but I will try.” She ended her message, “Love you forever. Rest in peace.”
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For a generation of young pro-democracy activists, Navalny’s burial represents the death of their dream for a fairer, democratic, Europe-facing Russia, as casualties mount in the war against Ukraine and Putin, determined to cling to power, crushes even trivial dissent within Russia. A blank protest placard, a scrawl of graffiti or a social media post can be punished with a lengthy jail term.
Even from jail, isolated from his family and supporters, Navalny cut Putin down to size, lacerating his corrupt, aggressive regime and the war Navalny believed had smeared all Russians with Ukrainian blood.
Putin, who has sharply curtailed democratic rights and freedom of speech, portrays civil activists and opposition democrats such as Navalny as paid Western agents who are working to destroy the country from within.
But Navalny emerged as a particular threat to the Kremlin because of his humor, energy, appeal to a young new generation of activists and capacity to mobilize a network across the country.
Alexei Navalny, imprisoned Russian opposition leader, is dead at 47
Many of the thousands waiting in line outside the church understood the risks of attending, amid the warnings of possible arrests, but came anyway. On a cold, overcast day, the line stretched for blocks, with people bundled up in winter coats and clutching bouquets of flowers.
Only a handful got anywhere near the church, the cemetery, or Navalny’s coffin, after walls of masked riot police divided and controlled the crowds, hemming them in with barricades.
“I feel my utter helplessness in this moment — the authorities just showed us how total and powerful their grip is on us,” said Sergei, 50, a Moscow businessman.
“It was a total blockade,” he said, declining, like other mourners, to give his full name out of fear of reprisal by Russian authorities. “They allowed us to gather here, but that was it. We could do nothing, see nothing, say nothing.”
But others said it was the first time in two years that they “could breathe,” a chance to walk with friends, cry and chant Navalny’s name.
Friends Dmitri, 29, and Vassilisa, 28, said they were “very happy” that people had turned out in their thousands, allowing them to feel a flicker of freedom.
“This is the first time in several years that I haven’t felt alone,” said Vassilisa. “To live in silence is just suffocating. We have all seen today that we are not alone.”
Alexander, 25, said he had attended all the street protests before the war. On Friday, he wore a balaclava to try to avoid detection by Moscow’s video surveillance system.
“I am scared, to be honest,” he said. “But for me, Navalny was strength, bravery and love.”
Russia’s elite stayed away from Navalny’s funeral. One Russian businessman, asked about the funeral, declined to comment because “the situation is such now … well, you understand yourself.”
“A young, strong and brave person has died. Of course, it’s terrible, but what can you do? This is how life is now. Terrible. Please don’t mention me.”
Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow with the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said Russia’s elite would not support Navalny, whatever their private feelings, because “they are frightened. They are in the same submarine as Putin. And not one of them can say a word.”
He added that even though Putin had obliterated Russia’s political opposition, many people still came to attend the funeral.
This show of defiance from Russian civil society threatens Putin’s regime, he said, “in the sense that it undermines the myth that people have absolutely consolidated around the powers-that-be.
“There is the sense that there are many people who are dissatisfied with the current regime. Those that have come to say farewell to Navalny are expressing exactly this,” he said.
When Navalny’s parents left the church, appearing emotional, mourners outside cried out “Thank you! Thank you for your son!” and scattered flowers on the hearse.
Ebel reported from Moscow; Dixon from Riga, Latvia; Ilyushina from Berlin; and Belton from London.