A PARANOID Putin ordered his secret service agents to prevent Alexei Navalny’s funeral from turning into a full-scale revolt.
The worried dictator was fearful that the event would paint a picture similar to outspoken Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov’s farewell in 1989.
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Kremlin ordered the Russian FSB agents to carry out an “operation” to “protect the constitutional order from threats”, reported the Moscow Times.
An official told the media outlet: “The task [by FSB] was to prevent a revolt similar to the farewell to Sakharov.”
Andrei Sakharov was a Nobel prize-winning scientist who spent his career developing Nuclear weapons for the Soviet Union.
But he was mostly known for his political activism and advocacy for nuclear non-proliferation, which put him at odds with the Soviet establishment.
Much like Navalny, he became the leader of a growing opposition movement against the USSR and was internally exiled within Russia.
Sakharov’s funeral in 1989 drew close to 50,000 people and was described as a “frightening procession” where people outpoured their support for the Russian critique.
It illustrated how the country was ready for a massive political change – and went on to become one of the first steps that brought Mikhail Gorbachev’s USSR down to dust.
Putin deployed maximum measures to prevent Navalny’s funeral from becoming a rerun of the 1989 event.
The state and loyalist media were ordered not to cover the funeral procession, an instruction which was slavishly obeyed.
Two senior sources said Navalny’s send-off “caused unrest among the country’s top leadership, despite the ostentatious self-confidence demonstrated by President Vladimir Putin”.
The Kremlin “held a series of meetings with senior generals of the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a colony above the Arctic Circle”
An official said: “Navalny’s funeral is a stress test for the Russian authorities.
“This topic was one of the most important at meetings involving Kremlin officials, FSB generals and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.”
Tens of thousands stayed after the burial to pay homage to the “murdered” Russian opposition leader – and chanted slogans backing Ukraine, opposing the war, and hostile to Putin.
Police detained more than 400 people across the country at memorials and rallies to honour Navalny the day after he died in jail.
And six others were detained in Moscow at the funeral procession itself, although large crowds of mourners remained.
One was a man who shouted: “Who killed Navalny?”
Navalny’s funeral is a stress test for the Russian authorities
Official
Footage from the scene showed a large crowd of people clapping and shouting Navalny’s name as the hearse transporting his body arrived at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows.
His coffin was lowered into a grave to the song My Way by Frank Sinatra as large crowds chanted “Russia without Putin”.
The Russian opposition leader was bid farewell at a moving open-casket funeral today – two weeks after his unexplained death.
Mourners were heard chanting: “Putin is a killer”, “We won’t forget”, “Freedom for political prisoners”, and “Russia without Putin”.
More than 1,000 people waited near the church to pay their respects to the anti-corruption activist, according to one of his allies.
Many were carrying flowers and stood in silence as uniformed officers checked documents and personal belongings before the ceremony.
The politician’s parents – Anatoly Navalny and Lyudmila Navalnaya – were seen walking to the church in Moscow ahead of the ceremony.
His widow Yulia Navalnaya – understood to be outside of Russia – was not in attendance.
She paid tribute to her late husband following the funeral on X, thanking him for “26 years of absolute happiness… even over the last three years”.
Yulia added: “For love, for always supporting me, for making me laugh even from prison, for the fact that you always thought about me.
“I don’t know how to live without you, but I will try to make you up there happy for me and proud of me. I don’t know if I can handle it or not, but I will try.”
The opposition leader’s coffin was carried out of the church less than an hour after the ceremony began and moved to the Borisovskoye Cemetery.
A white shroud was placed over Navalny’s head and mourners walked up to the casket to pay their respects.
The politician’s parents stood either side of the coffin as it was closed and lowered into the grave to the song My Way by Frank Sinatra, his spokeswoman said.
Iron fences surrounded the church, apparently intended to limit Navalny’s supporters’ access to the farewell ceremony, and a notice advised people not to film or take photographs.
The Kremlin earlier warned against unsanctioned gatherings for the late opposition leader.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Any unauthorised gatherings will be in violation of the law and those who participate in them will be held responsible.”
Navalny, 47, died in Polar Wolf jail in the Russian Arctic on February 16 while serving a 19-year sentence on trumped-up extremism charges.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
It was alleged his body was found covered in bruises.
Western leaders and members of his camp have since claimed he was “murdered” on the direct orders of Vladimir Putin.
Life of Alexei Navalny
PUTIN’S best known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, has died in prison.
Here is a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison and onto an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
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