The funeral for Alexei Navalny today proved to be Vladimir Putin 's worst nightmare as thousands of Russian mourners gathered in Moscow to say their final farewell. Despite a heavy police presence and a warning against dissent from the Kremlin, the huge crowds chanted Navalny's name as his coffin was carried into the Russian Orthodox church on the outskirts of Moscow at around 11 am GMT. Many carried flowers and shouted support for the 47-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who galvanized mass protests against Putin - and who died on February 16 behind bars in the Arctic 'Polar Wolf' penal colony, 1,200 miles from Moscow.

Some shouted: 'You weren't afraid, neither are we!' His body was displayed in an open casket for less than an hour before it was taken away again by workers to be buried at a cemetery around a mile away. Shocking footage from inside the church showed the black-clad workers holding mourners back from the coffin as people begged to be allowed to say goodbye. Just minutes earlier, his elderly parents had been seen kneeling by its side. Video from outside the church appeared to show that - as it became clear Navalny's coffin was being whisked away - chanting began again, this time in greater defiance of Putin: ' Russia without Putin', 'Putin is a killer' and 'We won't forget' rang out.

As the coffin was taken away towards the cemetery, aerial shots over the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, in the southeast of the capital, showed just how large the crowd had grown. The vast mass of mourners, many carrying red flowers, began to walk towards a bridge to the south that crosses the Moskva River near the Borisov cemetery. It appeared in the footage that police were funneling protests onto the pavement, not allowing them to walk down the middle of the road, slowing the crowd down as it tried to follow the hearse to Navalny's final resting place.

There, several large wreaths were arranged around the grave. 'We won't forget you!' and 'Forgive us!' some mourners shouted as the coffin arrived for burial. The scenes outside Navalny's funeral would have been Putin's worst nightmare, with Russians openly showing support for his staunchest domestic critic. Russia is currently building up to a presidential election later this month which Putin is all but guaranteed to win. Nevertheless, the Kremlin has been at pains to crack down on any dissent - particularly as Moscow continues to wage war in Ukraine.

Some 400 mourners have been detained at Navalny memorials since his death, rights organization OVD-Info has said - raising fears of mass arrests today. Pictured from outside the church suggested at least one person was arrested. It was not immediately clear what repercussions those who attended the funeral - or those who chanted against Putin - could face. 'Any unauthorized gatherings will be in violation of the law and those who participate in them will be held responsible,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the build up to Friday's service, according to TASS news agency.

'What are they afraid of? Why so many cars?' one mourner, Anna Stepanova, told AFP news agency outside the church as people waited for Navalny's coffin to arrive. 'They are so afraid themselves. The people who came here, they are not scared. Alexei wasn't either. 'People like him shouldn't be dying: honest and principled, willing to sacrifice themselves,' she added. Another said: 'I feel this is a funeral for the Russia that might have been.' One woman, who flew 900 miles from Perm to Moscow said: 'I had high hopes for this man, he was very strong, very brave.

'I would like to see people today who also support him. The pain in my heart is such that I cannot describe it - so hard,' she added. Another woman added: 'For us, it was hope for a brighter future, not for North Korea. This is the only thing we can do now is to pay tribute to the memory, and keep it. 'A person lives as long as we remember him. We need to remember why he got there. For us, for everyone. And of course continue, don't give up, as he asked.' The French, German and US ambassadors were seen among mourners outside the church, as were some of Russia's last free independent politicians.

The dissident's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, earlier said she feared the funeral could be disrupted by further arrests. 'I'm not sure yet whether it will be peaceful or whether the police will arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband,' Navalnaya told the European Parliament this week. Navalnaya has blamed Putin for her husband's death. Putin's spokesman Peskov has criticized the accusations made by her and some Western leaders as 'vulgar'. On the day of the funeral, Peskov said he had 'nothing to say' to the family of the deceased. Putin himself has not publicly commented on Navalny's death. Navalny shot to prominence through his anti-corruption campaigning, exposing what he said was rampant graft at the top of Putin's administration.

Some mourners mentioned the huge influence Navalny had on their own political activism. 'Because of him I began to get involved in politics... He was the first public person that I listened to,' said 26-year-old Denis, a volunteer at a charity. Navalny was arrested in January 2021 when he returned to Russia after being treated in Germany for a poisoning attack likely carried out by the Kremlin. 'Alexei was tortured for three years,' Navalnaya told lawmakers in Brussels. 'He was starved in a tiny stone cell, cut off from the outside world and denied visits, phone calls, and then even letters.' 'And then they killed him. Even after that, they abused his body,' she said.

His body was held in a morgue for eight days before being returned to the family, which Navalny's team believed to be a bid to cover up responsibility for his death. His family and his team have also accused authorities of trying to prevent a dignified public burial, fearing it could turn into a flashpoint for dissent. Navalny's team said local investigators had threatened to bury him on the prison grounds if his mother did not agree to a 'secret' funeral. Once the body was released, allies struggled to find a place that would agree to hold a funeral ceremony, as well as hearse drivers.

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