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MOSCOW: Kin and supporters of Alexei Navalny are bidding farewell to the opposition chief at a funeral Friday in southeastern Moscow, following a battle with authorities over the discharge of his physique after his still-unexplained dying in an Arctic penal colony. His supporters say a number of church buildings in Moscow refused to carry the service earlier than Navalny’s workforce received permission from one within the capital’s Maryino district, the place he as soon as lived earlier than his 2020 poisoning, therapy in Germany and subsequent arrest on his return to Russia. The Church of the Icon of the Mom of God Soothe My Sorrows, which agreed to carry the service, didn’t point out it on its social media web page. Authorities lined the highway from from a close-by subway station to the church with crowd-control boundaries, and riot police deployed in massive numbers early Friday. A hearse set out with Navalny’s physique towards the church, his workforce mentioned. Burial was to observe within the close by Borisovskoye Cemetery, the place police additionally confirmed up in power. Navalny’s mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, spent eight days attempting to get authorities to launch the physique following his Feb. 16 dying at Penal Colony No. 3 within the city of Kharp, within the Yamalo-Nenets area about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. Authorities initially mentioned they could not flip over the physique as a result of they wanted to conduct autopsy assessments. Navalnaya, 69, made a video enchantment to President Vladimir Putin to launch the physique so she may bury her son with dignity. As soon as it was launched, at the least one funeral director mentioned he had been “forbidden” to work with Navalny’s supporters, the spokeswoman for Navalny’s workforce, Kira Yarmysh, mentioned on social media. In addition they have been unable to discover a hearse for the funeral. “Unknown people are calling up people and threatening them not to take Alexei’s body anywhere,” Yarmysh mentioned Thursday. Russian authorities nonetheless have not introduced the reason for dying for Navalny, 47, who crusaded towards official corruption and arranged massive protests as Putin’s fiercest political foe. Many Western leaders blamed the dying on the Russian chief, which the Kremlin angrily rejected. It was not instantly clear who amongst Navalny’s household or allies would attend the funeral, with lots of his associates in exile overseas on account of worry of prosecution in Russia. Navalny’s Basis for Preventing Corruption and his regional workplaces have been designated as “extremist organizations” by the Russian authorities in 2021. The politician’s workforce mentioned the funeral could be streamed dwell on Navalny’s YouTube channel. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of attempting to dam 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,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote on X. In a speech to European lawmakern Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, she additionally expressed fears that police may intrude with the gathering or would “arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband.” Moscow authorities refused permission for a separate memorial occasion for Navalny and slain opposition chief Boris Nemtsov on Friday, citing COVID-19 restrictions, politician Yekaterina Duntsova mentioned Thursday. Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, was shot to dying as he walked on a bridge adjoining to the Kremlin on the evening of Feb. 27, 2015. Yarmysh additionally urged Navalny’s supporters world wide to put flowers in his honor Friday. “Everyone who knew Alexei says what a cheerful, courageous and honest person he was,” Yarmysh mentioned 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.” Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, mentioned that his funeral had initially been deliberate for Thursday – the day of Putin’s annual state-of-the-nation tackle – however no venue agreed to carry it then. In an interview with the impartial Russian information web site Meduza, Zhdanov mentioned authorities had pressured Navalny’s relations to “have a quiet family funeral.”

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