'Russia without Putin!': 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.

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'Russia will be free'

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."

There were no immediate reports of arrests.

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Russia warns against 'unauthorized gatherings'

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, urged those gathering in Moscow and elsewhere not to break the law, saying any "unauthorized (mass) gatherings" are violations, according to comments he made to Russian state media.

Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's widow and heir to his political activism, said earlier in the week she was worried that Putin would order the arrests of anyone who tried to attend her husband's funeral.

"I’m not sure yet whether it will be peaceful or whether police will arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband," Navalnaya said during a speech to European lawmakers in Strasbourg on Wednesday. "You cannot hurt Putin with another resolution or another set of sanctions that is no different from the previous ones, you cannot defeat him by thinking he’s a man of principles who has morals or rules. ''

Putin, she told European leaders, doesn't operate the way they do.

"You are not dealing with a politician but with a bloody mobster,” she said.

Putin, for his part, has been focused on saber-rattling on international affairs as much as he has on domestic politics. He warned this week that the West faces prospects of a nuclear conflict if it got more involved in its war in Ukraine. The warning was a response to suggestions by France's president that Western troops could eventually fight alongside Ukrainian forces two years into Russia’s ongoing invasion.

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Putin crackdowns on his critics

Putin has passed stringent laws that have marginalized any effective opposition to his rule. Many Russian activists who oppose his government have either fled the country or are themselves imprisoned.

Russian authorities detained about 400 people across 39 cities in the days after Navalny's death as they attempted to lay flowers and pay their respects at small-scale vigils, according to OVD-Info, a Moscow-based independent human rights group and information service that focuses on political persecution in Russia.

OVD-Info published a photo from inside the church during Navalny's memorial service Friday that showed his body in an open casket covered with red and white flowers. His mother sat beside it holding a candle. Navalny’s father was also present. It was not clear who else in his family attended the service.

Neither Navalnaya nor her children are thought to have returned to Russia since Navalny's death.

"I don't know how to live without you," Navalnaya posted on X in a final goodbye message to her husband.

Dig deeper: 'They can come for you': For Russian protesters, a free-speech crackdown sharpens threat

'Sudden death syndrome'?

The exact cause of Navalny's death has not been independently established. Russian prison authorities say he died of "sudden death syndrome." But his family and supporters say he was murdered and question why it took more than a week for his body to be released to them. He also joins a growing list of Putin foes who died in mysterious ways including poisoning, falling out of windows, and even in a plane crash.

"He was our hope. He was the same age as my children. I feel like I'm burying my own son," one mourner outside the Church of the Icon of Our Lady Quench My Sorrow told the BBC, of Navalny.

"He was the only person I could trust. I was dreaming that he would become president. It's a huge tragedy."

The Biden administration last week imposed sanctions on more than 500 individuals and entities for Navalny's death and Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine. However, a panel of Russian dissidents in London told reporters on Wednesday they did not think those punitive measures, while helpful, would ultimately do much to harm Putin.

"There is no silver bullet that the Russian opposition or Western governments can employ to stop the war (in Ukraine) and get rid of Putin," said Vladimir Ashurkov, who helped found Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.

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"It's a matter of consistent work," Ashurkov said. "Our premise has always been that Putin's regime may seem stable but it's becoming more and more fragile and our goal as a professional political organization is to be the most organized political force in Russia when things start to change."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alexei Navalny's funeral draws mourners and anti-Putin slogans