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Flowers Pile Up At Navalny's Gravesite As Mourners Line Up To Pay Respects For Third Straight Day


Mourners line up to visit the grave of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow on March 3.
Mourners line up to visit the grave of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow on March 3.

Hundreds of mourners lined up on March 3 to pay their respects to opposition politician Aleksei Navalny for the third day in a row at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow, where a mound of flowers has formed at the gravesite of the anti-corruption campaigner.

The line stretched for about 600 meters, according to the news outlet Astra, as people waited to honor Navalny, who was buried on March 1. Many carried flowers and messages to add to the huge pile of bouquets and mementos that have been laid at the gravesite.

People of all ages lined up, including children, young people, and elderly people, risking potential arrest.

Police were present but did not intervene, according to Meduza and other media reports. A police paddy wagon was parked near the entrance to the cemetery, but the police officers were not visible, Meduza reported. Other reports said police looked on, but the situation remained calm.

"Heroes do not die. Thank you Aleksei" was one of the slogans written on a poster at the grave, where wreaths and children's toys had also been placed, according to the dpa news agency. A Russian Orthodox cross with a photo of Navalny smiling stood out above the flowers.

Navalny, who was Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent foe, died on February 16 in an Arctic prison camp at the age of 47. The circumstances of his death have not been clarified.

Following his funeral, Navalny's team emphasized that the opposition will continue its fight against corruption and Putin’s power apparatus.

Navalny's legacy will remain alive "as long as there are millions of people in Russia and the world who are not indifferent to this," they said. "That's why we must not give up."

In the two days since his funeral, 105 people have been detained in 22 cities across the country in relation to events marking the dissident's death, the OVD-info human rights group reported on March 3. Around 20 were arrested in Novosibirsk alone. Hundreds of others were detained as they tried to publicly mourn him in the days after his death.

WATCH: Mourners Visit Aleksei Navalny's Grave On March 2

Hundreds Visit Navalny's Grave Under Police Surveillance
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The independent project White Counter, which counts the number of participants in mass events, wrote on March 2 that significantly more than 13,000 people took part in the farewell to Navalny on March 1.

According to the project’s estimates, in the first 90 minutes after his funeral service, at least 16,500 people walked across the Brateevsky Bridge from the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, where Navalny’s funeral service was held, to the cemetery where he was buried.

Earlier, the pro-Kremlin publication Ridovka estimated the number of participants at 12,000, calling it small. Many people who came to bid farewell to Navalny chanted anti-war and anti-Putin slogans.

With reporting by dpa, Mediazona, and Astra

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