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Lines of hundreds of people with flowers — flanked by security officers — snaked through the streets near the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God and the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow where the funeral service and burial of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who died in prison under mysterious circumstances, are to take place.
Video from the entrance to the cemetery shows the area has been tightly restricted with a police presence amid a tense mood as people’s documents and personal belongings were checked. Some media reports said mobile Internet service in the area had been shut down.
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. local time on March 1 at the church in the Moscow district of Maryino where Navalny used to live, according to his former spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, adding that the funeral will take place at 4 p.m. local time at the Borisovskoye Cemetery.
Yarmysh also said in another post that ritual services initially had refused to transport Navalny’s body from a Moscow morgue to the church, but at the last minute relented.
“Aleksei’s body has been given to his relatives, the hearse with him will soon head to the church,” Yarmysh tweeted.
A corridor of metal fences has been installed on the way from the Maryino metro station to the church and cemetery. Fences also line the sidewalks on the Brateevsky Bridge, local media reported, while security forces on both banks of the Moskva River are checking the documents and personal belongings of passersby.
According to the Sota news outlet, at least 40 police vehicles of various sizes — from cars to special buses — were parked near the church on the morning of March 1. Riot police in balaclavas patrolled the perimeter.
A Mediazona correspondent noticed Internet interruptions on mobile phones. The Insider wrote the day before that an antenna was installed near the church for communication between security forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued a warning through reporters during a conference call that any unsanctioned gatherings in support of Navalny would be considered violations of the law, a thinly veiled threat that police would intervene quickly to deal with crowds.
He also said the Kremlin had no assessment of Navalny as a politician and nothing to say to Navalny’s family.
“But we have something to say to the Kremlin — the killers of Aleksei,” Yarmysh tweeted in response.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement or responsibility for Navalny’s death.
For those who can’t attend, Yarmysh said the funeral would be live-streamed on YouTube.
It was not clear how many people would attend. Hundreds of Russians have been arrested just for laying flowers at memorials to Navalny across the country.
Ivan Pavlov, a prominent Russian civil rights lawyer who has left the country, said Russian authorities will see the funeral as “an undesirable mass event” and will try to keep participation low.
“I’m sure there will be police cordons and video surveillance from all sides,” he said. “As a preventive measure, they’ll summon known activists to police stations or visit them at their homes to give warnings. We’ve already seen it.”
At large Orthodox ceremonies, mourners are typically given a chance to file past the open casket, with the service presided over by a priest and accompanied by a choir.
Navalny will be buried after the service at the Borisovskoye cemetery, which is about 2 kilometers away on the other side of the Moskva River.
Ivan Zhdanov, the former head of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said there was a rumor in the media that only relatives would be allowed to attend the funeral service.
“We do not have any such information. All we know is that the church will be open to everyone,” he said.
Navalny’s team also put out an appeal to the Kremlin critic’s supporters around the world to gather at 7 p.m. in their time zones.
“We understand that not everyone will have the opportunity to come to Moscow to say goodbye to Aleksei Navalny on March 1,” his team said on Telegram. “To honor his memory, go to the memorial in your city at 7 p.m. local time.”
The post includes a list of some cities and urges people to create a memorial if there isn’t one in their city or town.
Navalny’s body was released to his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, on February 24, more than a week after his death from what authorities said was “natural causes” at a prison in an Arctic region of Russia. He was 47. Officials have not commented further.
Before the body was released, Navalnaya said authorities were setting conditions on where, when, and how her son should be buried. She said authorities wanted the family to agree to bury him quietly and threatened to bury him on the prison grounds if she didn’t agree.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia, previously said his family fought for a week to take his body and organize the funeral.
“And I’m not sure whether the procession will be peaceful, whether the police will come there for those who come to say goodbye to my husband,” she said.
Zhdanov also accused the Kremlin of thwarting their attempts to organize a bigger event.
Zhdanov said February 29 was initially chosen as the date for the funeral, but it became clear that officials were forcing a different date. Zhdanov said this was probably because it would have conflicted with President Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-union address, which came on the same day.
Putin delivered the address as scheduled on February 29 and did not mention Navalny in his speech.
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