Putin's ring of steel fails to intimidate crowds at Navalny's funeral

Exiled wife watched service on livestream

Alexei Navalny’s widow has been in exile from the Russsian state and was forced to watch her husband's funeral by livestream.

At a church ceremony before his burial his sobbing parent’s kissed their son before the open casket was sealed and taken for burial.

His mother Lyudmila Navalnya sobbed, covering the face of the 47 year-old politician with a funeral shroud.

In a heart-breaking tribute Navalny’s wife Yulia wrote on X: “I don’t know how to live without you.”

Using the familiar term for Alexei she said: “Lyosha, thank you for 26 years of absolute happiness.

“For love, for always supporting me, for making me laugh even from prison, for the fact that you always thought about me.

“I don’t know how to live without you but I will try to make you up there happy for me and proud of me.

“I don’t know if I can handle it or not but I will try.”

Saying her final goodbye she finished with the words: “Love you forever.

Give Ukraine western fighter jets to fight Russians, urges Boris Johnson

“Rest in peace.”

Lyudmila Navalnaya and Anatoly Navalny, Alexei's parents (AFP via Getty Images)

Kremlin test fires new nuclear missile

Away from the sad events at Alexei Navalny's funeral today, the Kremlin has this afternoon released footage of what it claims is a successful test of Putin's nuclear-capable Yars ballistic missile.

The Yars, which can be equipped with nuclear warheads, is a 50,000kg, 75ft weapon. Footage released by the Russian state on Friday shows one of the weapons being fired by a mobile launcher.

You can read more of the Mirror's coverage of this event here.

Live-streamed burial

Alexei Navalny's burial ceremony is being live-streamed on his Youtube channel.

Russian's opposition leader who died last month is being buried at the Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow following a funeral service at the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church.

As his casket was lowered into the ground, Frank Sinatra's My Way was played, followed by the theme tune from the Terminator movie.

Earlier thousands of supporters were seen gathering nearby and many chanted his name as his coffin was carried in.

A woman lights a candle at a makeshift memorial (AFP via Getty Images)

Service finished

The funeral service at the church has now finished.

The coffin will now be taken to the cemetery for burial.

The coffin arrived in a blacked out transit-style van (AFP via Getty Images)

Images from inside service

Alexei Navalny's team has shared an image from inside the service.

The photograph show's the politician's open casket with his body covered in long-stemmed red and white roses.

The image shared by The Anti-Corruption Foundation shows mourners holding candles and religious leaders.

Western diplomats join crowds

German, French and US ambassadors have arrived at the church to pay their respects to Alexei Navalny.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Pierre Levy and Lynne Tracy have been pictured near the church, dressed in black and carrying red roses.

Western ambassadors at the scene (AP)

The coffin has been carried in

Pallbearers can be seen carrying the coffin of Alexei Navalny into the church.

Russian media is reporting that internet services have been blocked so nothing can be reported from the area or inside the service.

The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is carried into the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church (AFP via Getty Images)

Crowds chant his name

Crowds gathered outside the church have changed Navalny's name - Alexei - as the hearse went by.

They were also heard chanting: "You were not afraid, and we are not afraid."

David Cameron "Putin had tried to silence Navalny"

The British foreign secretary Lord David Cameron has tweeted in support of Alexei Navalny ahead of his funeral.

He said Vladimir Putin had "tried to silence" the Russian opposition politician but "the world was watching".

In a post on X he said: "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."

Hearse has arrived

The hearse carrying Alexei Navalny's coffin has now arrived outside the church.

The service is expected to get underway at 2pm local time - 11am GMT.

Cause of death still unknown

Russian authorities still haven't announced the cause of death for Navalny, 47, who crusaded against official corruption and organised big protests as Putin's fiercest political foe.

Many Western leaders blamed the death on the Russian leader, an accusation the Kremlin angrily rejected.

It was not immediately clear who among Navalny's family or allies would attend the funeral, with many of his associates in exile abroad due to fear of prosecution in Russia.

Alexei Navalny died in prison last month (AFP via Getty Images)

Mourners in tears

As thousands wait for the hearse to arrive some have spoken to reporters about why they are there.

One said: “I feel this is a funeral for the Russia that might have been.”

A woman said: “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, 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.”

A woman, who has attended today with her mother and daughter, said: “We couldn’t have missed it. They must know we are here. They should see us, they should know they [the authorities] can't silence us.”

Another man said: “I want to bid farewell to Alexei who showed us an example of unbeatable courage and gave us all hope.

“We will never forget him.”

Another male mourner added: “We came from Petrozavodsk. He gave our life for us.”

People react outside the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God (MAXIM SHIPENKOV/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Struggle to arrange funeral

Alexei Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, spent eight days trying to get authorities to release the body following his death on February 16.

He died at Penal Colony No. 3 in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow and she protested to see her son's body.

The morgue where the body was being held delayed its release, according to Ivan Zhdanov, Navalny's close ally and director of his Anti-Corruption Foundation, before eventually he confirmed that a hearse carrying the body had set out for the church.

Authorities originally said they couldn't turn over the body because they needed to conduct post-mortem tests.

The opposition leader's 69-year-old mother made a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin to release it so she could bury her son with dignity.

Once it was released, at least one funeral director said he had been "forbidden" to work with Navalny's supporters, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media.

They also struggled to find a hearse.

"Unknown people are calling up people and threatening them not to take Alexei's body anywhere," Yarmysh said yesterday.

Crowds line the streets (AFP via Getty Images)

Kremlin has nothing to say

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had nothing to say to Alexei Navalny on the day of the Russian oppostion leader's funeral.

In a call with reporters this morning, he said: "The Kremlin doesn't have anything to say to Navalny's family on the day of his funeral."

He also declined to give any assessment of Navalny as a political figure or his impact on Russian politicis.

He also warned those attending "any unsanctioned gatherings" would violate the law.

Mr Peskov added: "Accordingly, those who participate in them will be held accountable."

Children kept in schools

Children in the area are to be held in school during the Alexei Navalny's funeral service today.

Some parents have been told the youngsters will have an extra compulsory lesson - "a class hour dedicated to World Civil Defence Day”.

Students in some Moscow universities have been told they must not attend the funeral or face reprisals.

A website for online mourners had 250,000 candles lit in memory of the opposition leader - Remember Navalny

Widow accuses Putin of trying to block funeral

Alexei Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya has accused Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of trying to block a public funeral.

"We don't want any special treatment - just to give people the opportunity to say farewell to Alexei in a normal way," she wrote on X.

In a speech in Strasbourg, France, she warned of fears that police might interfere with the gathering or would "arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband."

(AFP via Getty Images)

Crowds arrive from around Russia

Crowd are gathering at the church where Navalny's funeral was to be held.

‌Secret servicemen can be seen patrolling the rooftops nerby the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church in a sign of the Putin’s regime’s paranoia. ‌It was unclear if they were snipers or crowd watchers.

‌A 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."

Mourners gather in front of the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church in Moscow's district of Maryino (AFP via Getty Images)

Tributes pour in on funeral day

In a Moscow court, repressed journalist Roman Ivanov who was facing a lengthy sentence for sharing only a UN report about the Russian army’s rapes and brutality in Bucha - bade farewell to Navalny in a moving tribute from the dock.

‌“I would like to express my condolences to Alexei [Navalny’s] family,” the 50 year old said. ‌“Of course, nothing can console this grief, not even the fact that they can rightfully be proud of him. ‌“I express my sympathy to Russian society, which has lost a worthy citizen, a courageous, honest, principled person.

‌“It is a shame for a country in which political [competition] is carried out through criminal prosecution, repressive judicial decisions, attempted murders and deaths. ‌It’s scary to think about the future of such a country.

‌“I want to thank Alexei for the fact that until the last day he spoke about the criminal essence of the war, about the need to solve all problems by peaceful means, and not by force of arms, about the highest value of human life.

“May his memory be blessed."