‘Thank you for your son’; Alexei Navalny, in death, stirs Russians
Grave of Alexei Navalny (Image credit X @ACF_Int
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, March 1: Mourning Russians on Friday hugged mother of Russia’s foremost Opposition leader Alexei Navalny and said: “Thank you for your son.” East European broadcaster Nexta said that the queue at the funeral procession of Navalny extended to several kilometers. Nexta reported that the people chanted, “We won’t forgive you for his death.”
In death, Navalny appears to have rallied the people in Russia to come to the street to denounce the Russian war in Ukraine. Navalny had died in suspicious conditions, and his body was handed over to his mother after days of his death in a Russian prison.
Anna Nemtsova, a senior journalist with Daily Beast, posted on X, formerly Twitter, “In Moscow today, people are chanting ‘not to war’ on the day of Aleksey Navalny’s funeral. People hug Navalny’s mother, who is crying and say: Thank you for your son.”
The videos doing the rounds of the internet showed thousands of the people spontaneously joining the funeral procession of Navalny. He was an anti-corruption crusader. Russian commentators hailed him as the foremost critic of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Navalny had shot to the fame by shooting a documentary to show purportedly a lavish mansion of Putin, while he claimed that the ruling class in Moscow lived off the wealth of the people in ultra luxury.
Jullia Loffe, Washington correspondent of Puck News, said on X: “There have been a few instances now of Navalny’s funeral turning into an anti-war protest.” She added that Navalny’s father’s family is from Ukraine. Loffe added that “Navalny had demanded an end to the war, and the return of all territory, and reparations for Ukraine.”
The Russians were seen in the videos showering flowers at the funeral procession of Navalny. The G7 Leaders’ Summit in Italy last week had issued a statement to demand accountability for the death of Navalny. The US had also imposed a fresh batch of sanctions on Russia in the wake of the death of Navalny.
Alec Luhn, a freelance Journalist, said on X that “even before the wartime crackdown, you rarely saw as many people at an opposition event as at Navalny’s funeral procession. This day will be remembered.” It has been claimed that Navalny was previously poisoned and he had taken treatment in Germany. But he had returned to Russia again where he was arrested and later convicted.
Carl Bildt, Co-Chair European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “These are the scenes that the Kremlin did their utmost to prevent. It requires courage by citizens to go there and show their emotions – they are certain to have been recorded by the regime security service.” He was remarking on the outpouring of anger and emotion of the people during the funeral procession of Navalny.
Matthew Luxmoore, the Russia-Ukraine correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, said: “People (are) throwing flowers at the hearse carrying Navalny’s body. After so many waves of repression, it’s amazing that so many of his supporters have turned out. Incredible scenes in Moscow today, surreal even. Hundreds chanting Navalny’s name as his body is brought to the church – honouring a man the Kremlin branded an extremist, and killed.”
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