Vladimir Putin's Reliable Critic, Alexei Navalny Was Buried This Friday in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin after flying with the Tu-160M bomber. (Source: Kommersant/Dmitry Azarov)

JAKARTA - Alexei Navalny will be buried at a cemetery in Moscow on Friday this week. The service will be held at the Borisovskoye Cemetery, following a farewell ceremony in the Maryino district.

On Tuesday, February 27, as quoted by the BBC, the opposition leader's spokesman said his team was struggling to find a funeral home after some refused to hold services when they found out who it was for.

Alexei Navalny suddenly died in an Arctic prison earlier this month. For many years, he was Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic.

Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, as well as several world leaders, have directly blamed the Russian president for his death.

Navalny's team initially wanted to hold the funeral on February 29, but "it quickly became clear that there was not a single person around who could dig a grave that day", Ivan Zhdanov, director of the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote in X.

Zhdanov implied that the reason was because Russian President Vladimir Putin would deliver his annual address to the Federal Assembly on the same day.

"The Kremlin understands that no one will care about Putin and his speech on Alexei's farewell day," he wrote.

He also encouraged people to come early "to have a chance to say goodbye to Alexei."