Alexei Navalny’s family, friends and supporters will bid farewell to the late opposition leader at his funeral in Moscow today.
According to his team, several venues in the city refused to hold the service before they were eventually given permission by a church in the capital’s southeast.
Police put up barriers near the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows yesterday, where the farewell ceremony will take place before his burial at the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery.
Mr Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya raised fears earlier this week that Vladimir Putin would order arrests at her husband’s funeral.
The mother of the prominent Kremlin critic had battled with authorities for days for the release of his body following his death while imprisoned at the Polar Wolf penal colony north of the Arctic Circle.
Russian officials haven’t announced the cause of death. Western nations hold Mr Putin responsible – the Kremlin has rejected this.
It’s not clear who will attend Mr Navalny’s funeral today, after one of his allies said his relatives were being pressured to have a “quiet family funeral”.
According to his spokeswoman, the funeral service will begin at 2pm local time (11am UK time).
Russia ready to hand over bodies of plane crash victims – report
Russia is prepared to hand Kyiv the bodies of the victims who died in a plane crash in a Russian border region in January, according to a report.
State news agency RIA cited Russian human rights official Tatyana Moskalkova as saying she was in contact with Ukrainian officials on the issue.
Moscow said 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board the Russian military plane which crashed in Belgorod on 24 January.
The Russian defence ministry blamed Kyiv for the crash, without providing evidence. Ukraine has challenged claims over who was on board, but has neither confirmed nor denied it shot down the plane.
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