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Flowers and souvenir pictures for Alexei Navalny in Berlin: “It is impossible to give up”

Photo: serial light / IMAGO

Around 800 Russian Orthodox clergy and laypeople have urged the government in Moscow to release the body of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

At the same time, Russian media reported the arrest of mourners who had taken part in Navalny rallies in several cities in Russia.

After their arrests, they are said to have received draft orders for the Ukrainian war from the authorities.

Accordingly, Russian Telegram channels reported on six Navalny sympathizers in Saint Petersburg who were said to have been sent the call-up.

They were taken away by the police as they publicly commemorated the death of 47-year-old Navalny.

Before they were released from police custody, they were apparently given a draft notice.

"We had to sign on the spot; they threatened to break our fingers if we didn't do it," writes one of Navalny's supporters on Telegram.

The men are now obliged to report for military service within a few days.

Meanwhile, Navalny's relatives are still denied access to the deceased's body on the sixth day after the death was reported.

High-ranking clergy have now urged Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to release it.

"We call on you to hand over Alexei Navalny's body to his family so that his mother, other family members and like-minded people can say goodbye to him and give him a Christian burial," said the appeal, which was also distributed by Navalny's team became.

"He was also a religious person"

Navalny died on Friday in a Russian penal colony in the Arctic.

He was one of the most prominent critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Numerous Western politicians blamed the Russian leadership and Putin himself for the death of his prominent opponent.

In their appeal, the believers reminded Putin, who often appears in churches with a candle in his hand, that there are Christian rules: relatives have a right to the funeral.

This was not only “her wish and her right, but also her duty towards God and the deceased,” the appeal said.

Navalny was not only an opposition politician, “he was also a religious person.”

The tragedy of death should not be exacerbated by denying a simple human request, the Russian Orthodox wrote.

“Remember that everyone is equal before God.” There is a risk that disgrace and inhumanity will further increase tensions in society.

“Show mercy and compassion for his mother, his wife, his children and his relatives.”

Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, had previously appealed to Putin via video to allow her son to be buried.

According to Orthodox custom, believers should be buried on the third day after their death.

"It's impossible to give up"

In addition to Navalny's team, other Russian opposition members are also ready to fight.

Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Mursa, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, encouraged his compatriots.

»Alexei said: Don't give up.

It's impossible to give up," said Kara-Mursa on Thursday from solitary confinement in a penal colony in Siberia.

"If we give in to the darkness and despair, that's exactly what they want."

According to Kara-Mursa, giving up the fight for democracy after Navalny's death is not an option.

"We have no right to do this, we owe it to our fallen comrades," Kara-Mursa appealed to the people of Russia.

The opposition politician, who is suffering from serious health problems, expressed the hope of "making Russia a normal, free, European and democratic country."

Kara-Mursa was found guilty in a closed-door trial in April 2023 of spreading “false information” about the Russian army and having ties to an “undesirable organization.”

At the end of January, according to his lawyer, he was placed in solitary confinement for four months.

mrc/AFP