Chilling preparations for uprising ahead of Alexei Navalny’s funeral today, with Putin’s army deployed amid fears of arrests
Riot police have arrived at the church where Alexei Navalny’s funeral service will be held today in Moscow.
Family, friends and supporters of Vladimir Putin‘s most prominent critic have gathered to bid farewell to the late opposition leader two weeks later his inexplicable death.
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Navalny, 47, died in Polar Wolf Prison in the Russian Arctic on February 16 while serving a 19-year prison sentence on trumped-up charges of extremism.
It was claimed that his body was found under the bruises.
Western leaders and members of his camp have since claimed that he was ‘killed’ on Putin’s direct orders.
Photos and footage captured this morning outside the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, Soothe My Sorrows, showed a major operation involving Russians Police and security services.
Read more about Alexei Navalny
Secret military personnel were seen patrolling nearby rooftops; it was unclear whether they were snipers or public watchers.
And buses carrying armed police were seen near the church and cemetery, along with paddy wagons or cells on wheels – apparently ready for expected arrests.
Iron fences surrounded the church, ostensibly intended to restrict the access of Navalny’s supporters to the upcoming farewell ceremony.
Just hours before the funeralNavalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said the late opposition leader’s team failed to find a hearse to take the body to the church.
She said: “Unknown people are calling morgues and threatening them if they accept to take Alexei’s body.”
Authorities are said to be treating the funeral and burial as a major military operation against pro-democracy Navalny supporters.
There has been speculation that male pro-Navalny supporters could be detained and immediately sent away to fight in Putin’s war. Ukraine.
The late opposition leader’s team has urged his supporters to try to attend today’s events – which will include a funeral service at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, Soothe My Grief and a subsequent funeral to take place on the nearby Borisovskoye cemetery.
Navalny’s widow Julia Navalnaya increased feared earlier this week that Putin would order arrests at her husband’s funeral.
Several locations in Moscow refused to hold the funeral service before the church in the city’s southeast agreed, Navalny’s team claimed.
Police placed barriers at the church yesterday and said they were checking the church passports of people in the area to “prevent terrorist operations.”
An aide to Navalny, Ivan Zhdanov, said the funeral service at the temple “will be open to everyone,” not just relatives.
But politician Ruslan Shaveddinov, a former press secretary of Navalny, claimed some activists were warned last night not to attend.
He said: ‘The Moscow authorities and the Kremlin are trying to intimidate anyone who wants to come.
“I don’t want to shout and call everyone to come because we are talking about a funeral.
‘And we consider this as organizing the farewell and funeral of Alexei Navalny.”
Shaveddinov added that the warnings to activists were treated “as an instrument of intimidation”.
He continued, “Of course they want to create horror so that everyone will be afraid.
“But this is the farewell and funeral of Alexei Navalny, this is not a rally, not a political procession.
“This is an opportunity for a large number of people for whom Alexei meant something, for whom he was important, to come and say goodbye to him for the last time.”
There were reports that smartphone signals were disrupted near the funeral location.
A woman who flew 1,500 kilometers from Perm to Moscow said today: ‘I had high hopes for this man, he was very strong, very brave.
“I would like to see people today who also support him.
“The pain in my heart is so great that I can’t describe it, so hard.”
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The life of Alexei Navalny
Putin’s best-known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, has died in prison.
Here’s a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s greatest enemy to a hellish Siberian prison and to an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny was born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduated from Russia’s RUDN University, where he studied law
2004 – Forms a movement against rampant overdevelopment in Moscow
2008 — Gains fame for exposing corruption in state-owned enterprises
December 2011 – Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread manipulation of Russia’s elections, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – More mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin henchmen of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee accuses Navalny of embezzlement. He rejects the claims, saying they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny wants to become mayor of Moscow
July 2013 – A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case and sentences him to five years in prison. He appeals and is allowed to continue his campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishing second in the mayoral race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother Oleg are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturned Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in the 2018 Russian presidential elections
February 2017 — The Kirov court retrials Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt that he blames on the Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission prevents him from running for president
August 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma during a flight and his team suspects he has been poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
January 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
February 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve a 2.5-year prison sentence
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for the Fight against Corruption and his extensive political network
February 2022 – Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine years in prison for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 – More than 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin urging an end to what she calls abuse of Navalny, after reports that he was denied basic medication and suffered slow poisoning
April 2023 – Navalny says from prison he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
August 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
December 2023 – He disappears from his prison because his team is afraid he will be killed. He reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons: the ‘Arctic Wolf Colony