"No to war" and "Ukrainians are good people": Russians chant anti-war slogans at Navalny's funeral

Friday, 1 March 2024, 18:30

People chanted anti-war slogans at Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's funeral in Moscow on 1 March. Local media reported that participants of the rally are being detained.

Sources: BBC News Russian; OVD-info, a human rights media project about political persecution in Russia; Latvia-based Russian media outlet Meduza; Russian media outlet Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories)

Details: Russians chanted "Ukrainians are good people" and demanded that Russian soldiers be brought home.

BBC News Russian also released a video of a long line of people at the cemetery shouting, "No to war".

OVD-info reported that it had information about over 45 protesters being detained across Russia. Most of them, 18 people, were detained in the city of Novosibirsk. Ten more people were detained in Yekaterinburg while laying flowers.

In addition, 10 individuals were detained in Voronezh Oblast as they were travelling to Moscow to pay their last respects to Navalny. A total of six people were detained in Moscow.

Previously: The funeral service for Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who died in a penal colony on 16 February, took place in Moscow on 1 March.

Background:

On the afternoon of 16 February, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Correctional Facility No. 3 in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in northwestern Siberia. Representatives of the colony where Navalny was located told the politician's mother that he died of sudden death syndrome.
On the morning of 19 February, Lyudmila Navalnaya arrived at the morgue in the town of Salekhard where the body of her son, opposition politician Alexei Navalny, was allegedly kept. Still, neither she nor her lawyers were allowed in.
On 23 February, Lyudmila reported that the prison administration threatened to bury her son's body in the prison colony if she did not agree to a secret, quiet burial.
On 24 February, Russia’s prison employees finally handed over the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his mother.
On 27 February, the politician's spokesperson Kira Yarmysh reported that Moscow funeral agencies refused to provide premises for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

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