A crowd of Russians has gathered in front of the Moscow church, where the farewell of the opposition leader takes place this Friday, Alexei Navalny, died two weeks ago in an Arctic prison under unclear circumstances. The long line of people who went to the Orthodox church in the Moscow neighborhood of Mariino three hours before the start of the funeral ceremony has been shown by Navalni’s team on their social networks.

“Come say goodbye to Alexei Navalni if ​​you are in Moscow. “Those who for various reasons are not there to be able to do it will thank you,” one of Navalni’s collaborators Leonid Volkov, currently in exile, has written in live broadcast from the place of the farewell, for which There are more than 25,000 people waiting.

Among the Muscovites who came to say goodbye to Navalni, defying the authorities’ warnings, people of all ages can be seen, some of whom are holding red carnations in their hands.

Both next to the temple, where the burning chapel is installed, and in the cemetery, where the politician will be buried, They have installed metal fences and a significant police force has been deployed. Multiple surveillance cameras and other devices that can serve as internet and mobile phone signal inhibitors were also placed on the cemetery lampposts.

Navalni’s family denounced for nine days the authorities’ refusal to hand over the politician’s body after his death. The day before, warnings from some universities were spread on Russian social networks to their students not to attend demonstrations related to Navalny under the threat of expulsion.