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The body of Alexei Navalny, the main opponent of Vladimir Putin who died on 16 February in a prison in northern Russia in circumstances that are still unclear, will finally be buried on Friday 1 March in the Borisov cemetery, in the south-east of Moscow: this was announced by the Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh.
The body was returned last Saturday to his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, after being held for days in the morgue in the Russian city of Salekhard without the family being able to see it. Navalnaya herself had also said that the Russian authorities had “blackmailed” her and had imposed very restrictive conditions on where, how and when to celebrate the funeral, probably to avoid a public commemoration that could become an occasion for dissent against of President Vladimir Putin. It’s not known what has changed since then, but Friday’s ceremony will be public.
In recent days there had also been problems regarding the date. Navalny’s family and collaborators had wanted to hold the funeral on February 29, but said they had encountered great difficulty in finding a place that would agree to celebrate the ceremony. Ivan Zhdanov, director of the anti-corruption foundation to which Navalny belonged, said that several funeral agencies had refused to organize the funeral as soon as they learned that the body to be buried was that of the Russian opponent.
According to Zhdanov, the reason for the various refusals received could also be attributed to the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual speech to the Russian parliament on February 29, two weeks before the presidential elections scheduled for March 15 and 17: «The Kremlin knows that no one will be interested in Putin and his speech on the day of Alexei’s farewell”, he said Zhdanov. The funeral will be at 2pm local time on Friday (12pm in Italy) in the church of the Icon of the Mother of God, which is located in the Mar’ino district, and then at 4pm the body will be taken to the Borisov cemetery. Zhdanov invited as many people to attend the ceremony.
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