Russia: Hundreds gather outside Alexei Navalny's funeral

Icon of the Mother of God Sooth my Sorrows - Wiki Images

Source: Vatican News/ICN

Despite a heavy police presence, thousands of people gathered outside the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Sooth my Sorrows in Moscow, where the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was held today.

According to a spokesperson, Navalny's family had significant difficulty finding a church and cemetery for the burial. Both are located far from the city centre. Authorities even threatened to bury Navalny anonymously. The church was asked to keep the service as short as possible. Hundreds of people lined the road and threw flowers as the hearse was driven from the church to Borisovsky cemetary.

Navalny's death two weeks ago in an Arctic penal colony remains unexplained. The prison administration in Siberia denied his mother, Ludmilla Navalnaya, access to his body for days after his death. The handover of the body to the relatives was delayed until Friday afternoon.

Alexei Navalny was considered President Vladimir Putin's main opposition. His team, together with foreign governments, have alleged murder. They hold Russia's leadership responsible for Navalny's death in the penal colony.

Alexei Navalny, who had good contacts within Western government circles, had been in custody since 2021, including many days in solitary confinement. Several courts in Russia had imposed lengthy prison sentences on him in dubious trials, including for extremism. He had been condemned to spend several decades in prison.

The European Parliament described Navalny's death as "murder" on Thursday. In a resolution adopted with 506 votes in favour and nine against, they emphasized that Russia's government and Vladimir Putin personally bear criminal and political responsibility for the activist's death, saying that they must be held accountable.

At a court appearance in January 2021, Navalny revealed he was no longer an atheist, and that it was his faith which motivated him to return to Russia - after he recovered from an earlier attempt on his life. He said: "If you want, I'll talk to you about God and salvation. I'll turn up the volume of heartbreak to the maximum, so to speak. The fact is that I am a Christian, which usually rather sets me up as an example for constant ridicule in the Anti-Corruption Foundation, because mostly our people are atheists, and I was once quite a militant atheist myself. But now I am a believer, and that helps me a lot in my activities, because everything becomes much, much easier. I think about things less. There are fewer dilemmas in my life, because there is a book in which, in general, it is
more or less clearly written what action to take in every situation. It's not always easy to follow this book, of course, but I am actually trying. And so, as I said, it's easier for me, probably, than for many others, to engage in politics.

'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.' I've always thought that this particular commandment is more or less an instruction to activity. And so, while certainly not really enjoying the place where I am, I have no regrets about coming back, or about what I'm doing. It's fine, because I did the right thing. On the contrary, I feel a real kind of satisfaction. Because at some difficult moment I did as required by the instructions, and did not betray the commandment."