‘It feels like it’s Russia’s funeral’ Reflections, goodbyes, and eyewitness accounts as Alexey Navalny is laid to rest
Alexey Navalny was laid to rest in Moscow’s Borisovskoye cemetery on Friday. Thousands of mourners came out to pay their respects at his burial ceremony and his funeral at the nearby Church of the Icon of Our Lady Soothe My Sorrows. Meduza has gathered some notable comments, farewell messages, and eyewitness accounts from public figures.
Dmitry Gudkov
Russian opposition politician
Goodbye, and thank you for everything.
Alexander Chernykh
Journalist
There are two lines — one [to get into the ceremony] and another to get into the back of the first line. One person told me that he’s not even hoping to join the farewell ceremony, “but this line, for me, is like the only possible protest rally.”
Andrey Loshak
Journalist
This is impossible to watch. It feels like it’s Russia’s funeral.
U.S. Embassy in Russia
Requiem
Unmoved by the glamour of alien skies,
By asylum in faraway cities, I
Chose to remain with my people: where
Catastrophe led them, I was there.
-Anna Akhmatova
1961
(Posted in Russian; translation by Stephen Capus)
Ruslan Shaveddinov
Navalny associate
Thank you for everything. We’ll avenge you. We won’t forget you.
Kirill Martynov
Journalist
The scariest possible image of a funeral: children shouting “Navalny” from school windows in Maryino, and the people who came to bid farewell hearing them from behind a fence. The schoolkids won’t be allowed to say goodbye — they’ve been locked inside by cowardly adults. The children have to live in the same society as the murderers and the people who aid them.
Arina Borodina
Journalist and TV critic
“A line formed” — that’s not accurate. It was more of an ocean. I don’t know whether there have ever been as many people in Maryino as there were today.
Of course I knew that quite a lot of people would be coming, but I didn’t know it would be THAT many — I never could have predicted it. I had to walk through several intersections to get to the back of the line at 1:30 p.m., but past the back of the line, there was yet another crowd of people. So many people. People everywhere. With flowers and without them. All different ages. Everyone came to say goodbye to Alexey Navalny.
Boris Nadezhdin
Anti-war politician who came closest to joining Russia’s 2024 presidential ballot
Of course, today is a tragic day because Alexey’s death is a great loss not just for his family and loved ones, to whom I offer my condolences, but it’s also a loss for a huge number of people, I think, for many millions in Russia and not only in Russia. Let’s hope that today’s farewell goes ahead without any incidents. I think many thousands of people will come, and I expect to see many of my old and new comrades in our fight for a peaceful and free Russia.
Boris Akunin
Writer
Today, they’re burying a person who had a beautiful dream: to create the Beautiful Russia of the Future.
A person can be killed. Anything living can be killed.
Including a dream.
Alexey did everything he could for the Beautiful Russia of the Future. Everything that was possible to give, he gave.
Now it’s up to us to decide whether that was in vain or not.
Eternal memory to Alexey — and eternal shame to us if we let his work be in vain.
David Cameron
U.K. foreign secretary
Putin tried to silence Alexei Navalny. But the world was watching.
On the day of his funeral, we remember his spirit of defiance in the face of brutality from the Russian regime, and his courage in standing up to corruption.
We must continue to hold Russia to account.
In this dark time, people in Russia need real news like never before.
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