Putin’s worst nightmare: Even in death, Alexei Navalny proves to be Vladimir’s nemesis as huge crowds chant ‘Russia without Putin’ and ‘Putin is a killer’ during funeral in greatest challenge to Vladimir in years

The funeral for Alexei Navalny today proved to be Vladimir Putin’s worst nightmare as thousands of Russian mourners gathered in Moscow to say their final farewell.

Despite a heavy police presence and a warning against dissent from the Kremlin, the huge crowds chanted Navalny’s name as his coffin was carried into the Russian Orthodox church on the outskirts of Moscow at around 11am GMT.

Many carried flowers and shouted support for the 47-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who galvanised mass protests against Putin – and who died on February 16 behind bars in the Arctic ‘Polar Wolf’ penal colony, 1,200 miles from Moscow.

Some shouted: ‘You weren’t afraid, neither are we!’

His body was displayed in an open casket for less than an hour before it was taken away again by workers to be buried at a cemetery around a mile away.

Shocking footage from inside the church showed the black-clad workers holding mourners back from the coffin as people begged to be allowed to say goodbye. Just minutes earlier, his elderly parents had been seen kneeling by its side.

Video from outside the church appeared to show that – as it became clear Navalny’s coffin was being whisked away – chanting began again, this time in greater defiance of Putin: ‘Russia without Putin’, ‘Putin is a killer’ and ‘We won’t forget’ rang out.

As the coffin was taken away towards the cemetery, aerial shots over the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, in the southeast of the capital, showed just how large the crowd had grown.

The vast mass of mourners, many carrying red flowers, began to walk towards a bridge to the south that crosses the Moskva river near the Borisov cemetery.

It appeared in the footage that police were funnelling protests onto the pavement, not allowing them to walk down the middle of the road, slowing the crowd down as it tried to follow the hearse to Navalny’s final resting place.

There, several large wreaths were arranged around the grave. ‘We won’t forget you!’ and ‘Forgive us!’ some mourners shouted as the coffin arrived for burial.

The scenes outside Navalny’s funeral would have been Putin’s worst nightmare, with Russians openly showing support for his staunchest domestic critic. 

Russia is currently building up to a presidential election later this month which Putin is all but guaranteed to win.

Nevertheless, the Kremlin has been at pains to crack down on any dissent – particularly as Moscow continues to wage war in Ukraine.

Some 400 mourners have been detained at Navalny memorials since his death, rights organisation OVD-Info has said – raising fears of mass arrests today.

Pictured from outside the church suggested at least one person was arrested. It was not immediately clear what repercussions those who attended the funeral – or those who chanted against Putin – could face.

Putin ordered his secret services to prevent the funeral turning into a full-scale revolt over his leadership, according to reports.

It is claimed that Putin was fearful of a rerun of Novel-prize winning physicist Andrei Sakharov’s farewell in 1989, which helped bring down the Soviet Union. 

The state and loyalist media were ordered not to cover the funeral – and most Russians have not heard the claims by Navalny’s family and Western leaders that Putin ordered his death.

Tens of thousands stayed after the burial to pay homage to the ‘murdered’ Russian opposition leader, and chant slogans backing Ukraine, opposing the war, and hostile to Putin.

The Russian special services were ordered by the worried Kremlin to carry out an ‘operation’ to ‘protect the constitutional order from threats’, reported the independent Moscow Times.

An official told the media outlet: ‘The task was set to prevent a picture similar to the farewell to Sakharov.’

Hundreds of thousands had attended the funeral of Sakharov, winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize, in Moscow.

‘Putin demanded that the FSB prevent a rebellion over Navalny’s death,’ said the outlet, citing insider sources.

The Kremlin ‘held a series of meetings with senior generals of the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a colony above the Arctic Circle’

Two senior sources said Navalny’s send-off ’caused unrest among the country’s top leadership, despite the ostentatious self-confidence demonstrated by President Vladimir Putin’.

An official said: ‘Navalny’s funeral is a stress test for the Russian authorities.

‘This topic was one of the most important at meetings involving Kremlin officials, FSB generals and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.’

Russian police detained at least 45 people across the country today – the day of the funeral – according to rights monitoring group OVO-Info. It is not known how many of these are linked to Navalny’s death.

The organisation reported: ‘OVD-Info is aware of more than 45 detentions. Most people – 18 of them – were detained in Novosibirsk,’, adding six had been detained in Moscow, where large crowds came out to pay their respects.

Navalny’s mother Lyudmila remained at the grave for three hours after her son was lowered into the ground.

People were permitted to lay flowers at the grave, yet the atmosphere was tense, with the authorities blocking mobile phone signals.

Mourners used flashlights to signal their support for Navalny, and some chanted ‘Ukrainians are good people’ – normally unthinkable defiance against brutal dictator Putin.

They called out: ‘Bring the soldiers home.’

Earlier Navalny was buried to the music of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, and Terminator 2.

In the build up to Friday’s service, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘Any unauthorised gatherings will be in violation of the law and those who participate in them will be held responsible,’ according to TASS news agency.

‘What are they afraid of? Why so many cars?’ one mourner, Anna Stepanova, told AFP news agency outside the church as people waited for Navalny’s coffin to arrive.

‘They are so afraid themselves. The people who came here, they are not scared. Alexei wasn’t either. ‘People like him shouldn’t be dying: honest and principled, willing to sacrifice themselves,’ she added.

Another said: ‘I feel this is a funeral for the Russia that might have been.’ 

One woman, who flew 900 miles from Perm to Moscow said: ‘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 such that I cannot describe it – so hard,’ she added.

Another woman added: ‘For us it was hope for a brighter future, not for North Korea. This is the only thing we can do now is to pay tribute to the memory, keep it.

‘A person lives as long as we remember him. We need to remember why he got there. For us, for everyone. And of course continue, don’t give up, as he asked.’

The French, German and US ambassadors were seen among mourners outside the church, as were some of Russia’s last free independent politicians.

The dissident’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, earlier said she feared the funeral could be disrupted by further arrests.

‘I’m not sure yet whether it will be peaceful or whether the police will arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband,’ Navalnaya told the European Parliament this week.

Navalnaya has blamed Putin for her husband’s death.

Putin’s spokesman Peskov has criticised the accusations made by her and some Western leaders as ‘vulgar’.

On the day of the funeral, Peskov said he had ‘nothing to say’ to the family of the deceased. Putin himself has not publicly commented on Navalny’s death.

Navalny shot to prominence through his anti-corruption campaigning, exposing what he said was rampant graft at the top of Putin’s administration.

Some mourners mentioned the huge influence Navalny had on their own political activism.

‘Because of him I began to get involved in politics… He was the first public person that I listened to,’ said 26-year-old Denis, a volunteer at a charity.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 when he returned to Russia after being treated in Germany for a poisoning attack likely carried out by the Kremlin.

‘Alexei was tortured for three years,’ Navalnaya told lawmakers in Brussels.

‘He was starved in a tiny stone cell, cut off from the outside world and denied visits, phone calls, and then even letters.’

‘And then they killed him. Even after that, they abused his body,’ she said.

His body was held in a morgue for eight days before being returned to the family, which Navalny’s team believed to be a bid to cover up responsibility for his death.

His family and his team have also accused authorities of trying to prevent a dignified public burial, fearing it could turn into a flashpoint for dissent.

Navalny’s team said local investigators had threatened to bury him on the prison grounds if his mother did not agree to a ‘secret’ funeral.

Once the body was released, allies struggled to find a place that would agree to hold a funeral ceremony, as well as hearse drivers.

And a civil ceremony allowing the general public to pay their respects to the body – common in Russia – has not been allowed.

Navalnaya has vowed to continue his life’s work and urged to ‘fight more desperately, more fiercely than before.’

In the crowd near the church, some seemed to agree.

‘A person has died, but his ideas will live on thanks to those who have gathered here,’ said Alyona, a 22-year-old archaeologist who came to pay her respects.