More than 100 arrested in Russia for paying respects to Navalny at a funeral

MOSCOW: According to CNN, which cited monitoring organization OVD-Info, over 115 individuals have been detained around Russia for honoring late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Novosibirsk saw the most arrests—16 people were placed under arrest there.

At least ten people were detained in Moscow, where Navalny was buried, while Yekaterinburg and the Voronezh area witnessed ten and fourteen detentions, respectively.
OVD-Info is a human rights advocacy and independent media organization that tracks and opposes persecution in Russia.

Detentions were also reported from other cities, such as Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Vladikavkaz, Sochi, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, and Ulan-Ude.
A large number of police officers and the possibility of being arrested did not stop thousands of people from attending Navalny’s burial in Moscow.
At the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Quench My Sorrows,” where the burial ceremony was place, there was an open casket with flowers all over Navalny’s face, and his coffin was lowered to the tune of “My Way” by Frank Sinatra.
Navalny was buried in the Borisovsky cemetery in the Maryino neighborhood of Moscow. Attendees included international officials including US Ambassador Lynne Tracy as well as his parents, notably his father Anatoly. Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Navalny who is overseas, voiced worries about possible police crackdowns on mourners.
While expressing no sympathy to Navalny’s family, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned against holding unapproved memorials and emphasized the potential legal repercussions for anyone who do so.
Mourners applauded and chanted “Navalny,” “no to war,” and “Russia without Putin” as Navalny’s corpse entered the cathedral.
Some participants dismantled crowd control barricades to join the burial procession after the service. A large queue of people stretching several hundred meters at the Brateyevsky Bridge gathered at the burial location. According to CNN, attendees showed their disobedience by declaring they were fearless of any government consequences for their involvement.
During the funeral, Navalny’s father Anatoly gave his son a heartfelt kiss on the forehead, which was documented on recordings that were provided by the team.
At the event was also US Ambassador Tracy. In a video posted before to the burial, Yulia Navalnaya expressed her gratitude to Navalny for 26 years of happiness and her anxiety about life without him. Despite the challenges of the trip ahead, she committed to pursuing happiness and pride.
The mourners’ audacious expression of dissatisfaction during Navalny’s burial brought attention to the general feeling against the administration. CNN claimed that the video showed people rushing past security guards and crowding around the grave site demonstrated a shared will to honor the late opposition leader despite the possibility of repercussions.