Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's funeral service and burial is set to take place in Moscow on March 1 amid heightened security and other tactics that appeared aimed at discouraging people from attending.
Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly Twitter, that the ceremony was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. local time on March 1 at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in the Moscow district of Maryino, where Navalny used to live.
"Despite all the opposition, farewell to Aleksei will definitely take place tomorrow,” she said on X on February 29. “Funeral service at 14:00, funeral at 16:00. If you are in Moscow, come.”
For those who can’t make it, Yarmysh said the funeral would be live-streamed on YouTube.
It was not clear how many people would attend and how the authorities would ensure crowd control.
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."
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At large Orthodox ceremonies, mourners are typically given a chance to file past the open casket, and the service is presided over by a priest and accompanied by a choir.
He will be buried after the service at the Borisovskoye cemetery, which is about 2 kilometers away on the other side of the Moskva River.
Security has been beefed up at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow and a nearby subway station, while security cameras have been installed on each streetlight around the cemetery.
The entrance to the cemetery has also been tightly restricted, the RusNews and Mozhem Obyasnit Telegram channels reported.
Ivan Zhdanov, the former head of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, also 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."
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 "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 officials were setting conditions on where, when, and how her son should be buried. She said the authorities wanted the family to agree to buy him quietly and threatened to bury him on the prison grounds if she didn't agree.
Zhdanov also accused the Kremlin of thwarting their attempts to organize a bigger event on February 29.
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 Putin's state-of-the-nation address.
Putin delivered the address as scheduled on February 29 and did not mention Navalny in his speech.