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At least one person was arrested at the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Friday, CNN reported, citing monitoring group OVD-Info.
Moreover, an additional 22 people were detained as soon as they tried to leave their homes to attend the funeral. OVD-Info is an independent media and human rights defence group focused on monitoring and combating repression in Russia. However, CNN could not independently verify the information and Russian authorities did not disclose additional information, according to CNN. Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was laid to rest at a Moscow cemetery today (Friday), exactly two weeks after his death was announced by Russia's prison service. Reportedly, Navalny's relatives were gathered around the coffin at the Borisovsky cemetery. "Lyoha, bye! Sleep well, dear," someone shouted from the crowd that had converged on the cemetery. Lyoha is a nickname of Navalny's. Others in the crowd were seen chanting, "Let us in to say goodbye!" Moreover, several other videos showed a large number of people streaming towards the burial site, CNN reported, adding that it was unclear whether they would be allowed into the cemetery or not. According to CNN, a several hundred-meter-long queue was formed at the Brateyevsky Bridge. Additionally, foreign diplomats, including the French and US ambassadors to Russia, arrived to pay their respects to Alexey Navalny at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God 'Quench My Sorrows.' Earlier, Navalny's family faced difficulty in procuring a hearse to drive his body to church ahead of his funeral ceremony on Friday, CNN reported. Navalny's team said that attempts to hire a hearse to drive Navalny's body to his funeral have been thwarted by unknown people, the US news outlet said, adding that Navalny's team alleges the body was held in order to pressure the family into agreeing to hold a private funeral. Navalny team's spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, claimed that drivers had been "called by unknown people and threatened not to take Alexey's body anywhere," CNN said. Yarmysh said she had been told that "no hearse agreed to take the body there." Navalny's team had initially planned a public farewell and funeral for the late Russian opposition leader for Thursday, but they were told that there were "no available cemetery workers who can dig a grave," Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said. Many venues claimed that they were busy, or refused the booking once Navalny's name was mentioned, while one venue explicitly said they were forbidden from working with Navalny's team, Yarmysh said. Navalny died at the age of 47 on February 16 in the Siberian penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year sentence after being found guilty of creating an extremist community, financing extremist activists and various other crimes in August. He had spent years criticising Putin and his death came weeks before the presidential elections in Russia were scheduled to begin on March 15. (ANI)
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