Navalny's funeral draws mourners and defiance
With Frank Sinatra's ''My Way' blaring in the background, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was buried Friday after thousands of defiant mourners gathered for his funeral in Moscow.
Risking arrest by Russian police, mourners clapped and chanted anti-Putin slogans as they paid tribute to Navalny, who died two weeks ago at an Arctic penal colony. He was 47.
A short memorial service for Navalny took place in an Orthodox church in southeastern Moscow. He was then interred in a nearby local cemetery, where music from "Terminator 2," Navalny's favorite movie, was played at the cemetery, his spokesperson said.
Video streamed online on Navalny's YouTube channel showed sizable crowds standing in orderly lines and behind barricades set up by police at the church and cemetery.
Some in the crowd clapped and chanted "Navalny! Navalny!" as the hearse carrying his body arrived at the Church of the Icon of Our Lady Quench My Sorrow.
Others chanted slogans directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, such as "Russia without Putin," "Russia will be free," and "You (Navalny) were not afraid, and we are not afraid."
With Frank Sinatra's ''My Way' blaring in the background, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was buried Friday after thousands of defiant mourners gathered for his funeral in Moscow.
Risking arrest by Russian police, mourners clapped and chanted anti-Putin slogans as they paid tribute to Navalny, who died two weeks ago at an Arctic penal colony. He was 47.
A short memorial service for Navalny took place in an Orthodox church in southeastern Moscow. He was then interred in a nearby local cemetery, where music from "Terminator 2," Navalny's favorite movie, was played at the cemetery, his spokesperson said.
Video streamed online on Navalny's YouTube channel showed sizable crowds standing in orderly lines and behind barricades set up by police at the church and cemetery.
Some in the crowd clapped and chanted "Navalny! Navalny!" as the hearse carrying his body arrived at the Church of the Icon of Our Lady Quench My Sorrow.
Others chanted slogans directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, such as "Russia without Putin," "Russia will be free," and "You (Navalny) were not afraid, and we are not afraid."