Alexei Navalny was buried in Moscow under police cordon

Heavy Russian police forces guarded his funeral Alexei NavalnyWhich was held in Moscow on Friday (1/3).

But the final “farewell” to this symbolic form of Russian opposition went through a series of obstacles.

His companions claimed that unknown persons blocked efforts to rent vehicles to transport his body.

According to Navalny's press representative, Kira Garmis, unknown persons threatened the funeral parlors that hold funeral sessions over the phone, which led to none of them accepting the transfer of the body.

“At first we were not allowed to rent a ceremony hall to say goodbye to Alexei. Now that the funeral service must simply take place in the church, the funeral homes are telling us that not a single hearse will take his body there,” Garmis wrote in X.

Time of death

Navalny, 47, a former lawyer and one of Vladimir Putin's staunchest opponents, died on February 16, 2024. He was He was detained in a prison about 60 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle where he served a 19-year sentence.

According to Russian prison services, he felt unwell and lost consciousness almost immediately, adding that an emergency medical team was immediately called, which tried to revive him, but to no avail. “Emergency doctors declared the inmate dead. The cause of his death is being investigated.”