Reuters
Hundreds of mourners assembled in Moscow Friday for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in spite of a heavy police presence around the church where the life of Vladimir Putin’s fiercest domestic critic will be celebrated.
Applauding supporters chanted Navalny’s name and the slogan “you were not afraid, and we are not afraid” as the hearse carrying his coffin arrived at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in a suburb of the Russian capital. The funeral comes after Navalny’s death on Feb. 16 at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony.
Navalny’s allies—who have accused the Kremlin of murdering the activist—attended the funeral despite the very real risk that doing so could lead to their arrest. Activists at earlier memorials in the wake of Navalny’s death have been detained, with Russian authorities treating his following as an extremist movement. His supporters said several churches had outright refused to hold the funeral service.