Russian authorities have belatedly given approval for anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny's family to hold a public funeral, after his mother alleged she was being pressured into holding only a 'secretive', private burial.
Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh announced on social media Wednesday that the funueral is set for March 1st, at his family church in southeastern Moscow. The church is the Russian Orthodox church in Moscow's Maryino district, where his home was located.
"Come early. The burial will be held at the Borisov cemetery," Yarmysh wrote on X in reference to the cemetery used by the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in Maryino.
His supporters and family have claimed that all funeral homes in Moscow were unwilling to prepare the burial for the desired day of Thursday, as it's the day President Putin is giving a major address to parliament. So instead, the funeral will proceed Friday.
"One place told us that funeral agencies were forbidden from working with us," Yarmysh has said.
Reportedly the family sought to book a larger venue for the funeral and memorial service, but they say Russian authorities thwarted this, fearing it will turn into a large public protest and anti-Putin rallying point.
Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya has continued speaking in front of gatherings of world bodies, with the latest being in European Parliament in Strasbourg. According to her address:
In it, she condemned Russia's "brutal and sneaky" war in Ukraine, and said the West's strategy for taking on Russia has not worked. "You can't hurt Putin with another resolution or another set of sanctions that is no different from the previous ones."
Instead, she urged MEPs to take inspiration from her late husband, calling him "an inventor" who "always had new ideas for everything, but especially for politics".
"You have to stop being boring," she said.
She has since been presented in Western media reports as the new "leader of the Russian opposition" - despite not having much recognition at all among the Russian population.
Even Navalny himself never polled more than 2% in Russia, and he was less popular than the old Communist Party. NATO and Europe are clearly trying to recreate Yulia Navalnaya as leader of a large, robust Russian anti-Putin movement, but this seems more wishful thinking an attempt to manufacture an international PR campaign.