Alexei Navalny’s funeral will take place in Moscow on Friday, announced the team of the Russian dissident, who died in an Arctic prison on February 16, said his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh
According to the official, Alexei’s “obsequies will take place at the Church of the Mother of God”, in the district of Maryino, in the Russian capital, at 2 pm local time (12 pm in Angola). The funeral will take place at the Borisovskoye cemetery.
In a note, published on the social network X (formerly Twitter), Yarmysh advised supporters to “attend in advance”. On Tuesday, the person in charge had said that it had not yet been possible to find a space to say goodbye to Navalny, with the team having tried “all public and private funeral homes”.
“Since yesterday we have been looking for a place where we can organize a farewell event for Alexei. We called most public and private funeral agencies, commercial spaces and wake rooms”, he said in X. “Some say that the place is completely booked. Others refuse to mention the nickname ‘Navalny,’” he added.
Navalny’s body was returned to his mother on Saturday following being held by Russian authorities for more than a week. According to the prison services of the Arctic region of YamalNenets, where the penal colony where Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence is located, “on February 16, 2024, in penitentiary center No. 3, prisoner Navalny A.
A. felt unwell following a walk”, and the causes of death are “being investigated”. The hospital in the city of Labytnangui, close to the penal colony, said that the “doctors who arrived at the scene continued the resuscitation operations already carried out by the prison doctors” for more than 30 minutes, but the death was eventually declared at the scene.
