Kremlin-Critic Alexei Navalny Buried In Moscow; Large Crowds Watching
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MOSCOW (Worthy News) – Russia’s late opposition leader Alexei Navalny was buried at a cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow following a funeral service in a church and a love-filled message from his widow.
Thousands of people turned out Friday to pay their respects to the Kremlin critic who died at age 47 two weeks ago in an Arctic penal colony under what his supporters believe were suspicious circumstances.
About a quarter of a million people also viewed the funeral on his channel on video sharing service YouTube, which is banned in Russia.
In Moscow, tearful crowds clutched bunches of flowers despite fears of arrests.
Some joined in chants – “Russia will be free,” “No to war,” “Russia without Putin,” “We won’t forgive,” and “Putin is a murderer”, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Police did not immediately intervene.
And as the human remains of Russia’s most prominent Putin opponent were laid to rest amid tight security, supporters chanted, “We won’t forget you.”
Earlier, several foreign dignitaries, including the U.S. ambassador, were seen near the church, attending the funeral. His widow expressed her sorrow online. “I don’t know how to live without you,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote in an emotional message to her husband Alexei.
FAREWELL MESSAGE
She posted a farewell message to him on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Lyosha, thank you for 26 years of absolute happiness,” Navalnaya wrote, referring to a familiar short form or nickname for Alexei.
“Yes, even over the last three years of happiness. For love, for always supporting me, for making me laugh even from prison, for the fact that you always thought about me,” she said.
“I don’t know how to live without you, but I will try to make you up there happy for me and proud of me. I don’t know if I can handle it, but I will try,” Navalnaya pledged.
The widow suggested both will “definitely meet” one day again. “I have so many untold stories for you, and I have so many songs saved for you on my phone, stupid and funny, in general, to be honest, terrible songs, but they are about us, and I wanted to let you listen to them. And I really wanted to watch you listen to them, laugh, and then hug me.”
She added: “Love you forever. Rest in peace.”
In a video streamed from the Borisovskyoe cemetery, Navalny’s mother and father, Anatoly, stooped over his open coffin to kiss him for the last time as a small group of musicians played.
Crossing themselves, mourners stepped forward to caress his face before a priest gently placed a white shroud over him, and the coffin was closed, witnesses said.
STATE MEDIA
State media gave little coverage to the funeral. The RIA news agency reported the fact of Navalny’s burial, noting the presence of foreign envoys, including the U.S., French and German ambassadors.
It recalled that he had been jailed on a host of charges, including fraud, contempt of court, and extremism.
Navalny denied all those accusations, saying they had been trumped up by the authorities to silence his criticism of Russian president Vladimir Putin, a view shared by Western leaders and his supporters.
He had been criticized over his nationalistic, anti-migration, and far-right past. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán refused to stand during an opposition-initiated moment of silence for Navalny, saying he wouldn’t stand up for “a chauvinist who called Georgians rats.”
However, critics said he overlooked that Navalny apologized for the rhetoric in his early years and became a voice for freedom in his nation, which angered the Kremlin.
Navalny also had good relations with often marginalized Jewish people, including his close adviser Leonid Volkov, and led massive protests against Putin’s perceived authoritarian style.
He survived an attempt to poison him in Siberia in 2020 with what Western laboratories said was a Russian-made nerve agent, Novichok.
GERMAN TREATMENT
Navalny has been in prison since his surprise return to Russia following medical treatment in Germany in January 2021.
Navalny was serving sentences totaling more than 30 years on charges including fraud and extremist activity that he said were trumped up to silence him.
While Russian authorities claim he died of “natural causes,” Western leaders, including President Joe Biden, blame Putin for his death.
Till his last breath, the anti-corruption crusader remained hopeful that the Russian rulers would one day be removed: “I believe, I am confident, and I believe that they are not the masters of our country, and never will be.”
On Friday, it became clear that many share that view and are ready to continue the work for which they say Navalny paid the ultimate price: with his life.
Yet, with a presidential vote just weeks away and Putin’s re-election seemingly inevitable, the opposition faces years of struggles in a nation from where hundreds of thousands were sent to fight in the frontlines of neighboring Ukraine.
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