Russians make a pilgrimage to the Borisovo cemetery in the south of Moscow to pay tribute to the late opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, whose death and mass farewell have dampened the re-election campaign of the president, Vladimir Putin.
«“Not everyone can love and be loved this way,” Alla Abrosímova, mother of Navalni’s widow, Yulia, commented in a video.
The funeral has passed, but many Russians are still in mourning. The funeral of Putin’s number one enemy showed that Navalny had numerous supporters, who are now very dissatisfied with both the war and the country’s authoritarian political drift.
Navalny, who died at the age of 47, was a confessed believer, which is why many consider him a martyr in the political and religious sense of the term, a dangerous legacy for the Kremlin.
Navalni’s supporters continue to mourn
Navalny’s supporters have practically flooded Navalny’s grave with bouquets of red and white flowers, mostly carnations, but also roses.
The police have not removed the metal detector and carefully search each visitor who approaches the cemetery to pay tribute to the deceased politician.
“Liosha (short for Alexei), we will not give up!” says one of the signs placed above the flowers.
The opponent’s mother, Liudmila Naválnaya, also decided to return to the place where her son lies. She fought to the point of exhaustion to have her son’s body handed over to her so she could bury him “as God intended” and also so that his supporters could freely say goodbye to him.
He was accompanied by the mother of Yulia Naválnaya, the politician’s widow who could not attend the funeral for fear of arrest – she accused Putin of ordering her husband’s murder – although she was present in spirit.
The necropolis had to close and reopen its doors several times on Friday due to the large flow of people eager to say goodbye to the opponent, who died suddenly two weeks ago.
More than one hundred arrested
It is prohibited to enter the cemetery with food or drink, although, according to eyewitnesses, the police presence is much smaller than the day before.
«People can enter without major obstacles. The atmosphere is very calm », she commented.
However, more than a hundred people have been detained in twenty Russian cities during the opposition leader’s funeral, according to the OVD-Info organization reported on Saturday.
Although the funeral took place in the capital, the largest number of arrests occurred in the Siberian cities of Novosibirsk and Omsk, where up to 35 people were sent to police stations.
In Moscow, 14 people were arrested – 17, according to other sources -, while in the capital of the Urals, Yekaterinburg, considered the most liberal city in the country, there were a dozen people arrested.
Censorship, electoral trickery
In an attempt to prevent such a demonstration of affection for the opponent and rejection of the Kremlin from affecting the progress of the electoral campaign, the authorities decided to impose an information blackout.
The main Russian news agencies issued brief dispatches about the funeral ceremonies with special emphasis on the presence of Western ambassadors, while the public television channels ignored them completely.
Of course, they widely reported on the death and funeral in honor of Nikolai Rizhkov, former Prime Minister of the Soviet Union.
The digital newspaper Meduza reported that two journalistic sources confirmed the prohibition of publishing extensive reports on the funeral in the written press and on television.
The Kremlin does not want anything or anyone to spoil the re-election of Putin, who has a voting intention of 79%, in the presidential elections on March 17.
Counterpropaganda and extremist surname
In a clear case of counterpropaganda, the official media did report on the inspection carried out by the public control commission at the IK-3 “Lobo Polar” prison where Navalni died on February 16.
«The results were practically no different from previous inspections. We monitored conditions, made recommendations. There were no notable violations,” said Danila Gontar, head of the commission in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
Gontar claimed to have inspected all the facilities, including the punishment cells, and to have spoken “with many people” without hearing any complaints, according to the Interfax agency.
In turn, as reported by the First Department human rights project, the courts of four Russian regions ordered administrative arrests against participants in events in memory of Navalny, considering that his same surname is an “extremist” symbol.
«Extremist symbology must be established by a court ruling. The surname Navalni was not banned and cannot be banned by a court decision. A person cannot be deprived of his first and last name, said lawyer Yevgueni Smirnov.EFE
#Navalnys #funeral #undermines #Putins #reelection #campaign
