In photos: Alexei Navalny’s funeral draws thousands of mourners to Moscow church
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Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable critic, was lowered into the ground to the strains of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as thousands of his supporters outside the cemetery chanted to be allowed to pay their respects. Under the supervision of busloads of riot police, Navalny’s body was whisked into the church for a brief ceremony before being taken for burial. Navalny died suddenly at the age of 47 in the Polar Wolf prison colony in northern Russia — a death that his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and other supporters have described as “murder” but which Russian authorities attributed to “natural causes.”
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March 1 | Moscow
People gather outside the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows. Relatives and supporters of Alexei Navalny are bidding farewell to the opposition leader at a funeral in southeastern Moscow, following a battle with authorities over the release of his body after his still-unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.
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March 1 | Moscow
Law enforcement officers walk outside the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
March 1 | Moscow
Mourners gather outside the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church ahead of the funeral service.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
March 1 | Moscow
Anatoly Navalny, right, and Lyudmila Navalnaya, parents of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny walk to the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows.
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March 1 | Moscow
The hearse carrying the coffin of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny arrives.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
March 1 | Moscow
A hearse, which reportedly transports a coffin with the body of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, is parked outside the Soothe My Sorrows church.
Stringer/Reuters
Stringer/Reuters
March 1 | Moscow
Russian people pay their respects next to a hearse with the coffin of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
March 1 | Moscow
A woman holds a portrait of Alexei Navalny, left, and his wife Yulia, signed "Eternal love has no death" outside the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrow.
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March 1 | Moscow
Mourners gather in front of the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church.
Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
March 1 | Moscow
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy, center, stands in a queue outside the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church.
Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
March 1 | Moscow
Pallbearers carry the coffin of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny into the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church for his funeral service.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
March 1 | Moscow
The body of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seen during a funeral service at the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church.
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-/AFP/Getty Images
March 1 | Moscow
People gather near the church.
Stringer/Reuters
Stringer/Reuters
March 1 | Moscow
People walk outside the church.
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March 1 | Moscow
Workers carry the coffin and a portrait of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny out of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows.
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March 1 | Moscow
Mourners follow the hearse carrying the coffin of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny after it left the Mother of God Quench My Sorrows church towards the Borisovo cemetery for Navalny's burial.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
March 1 |Moscow
Lyudmila Navalnaya, third from right, and Anatoly Navalny, second from right, parents of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, attends a funeral ceremony for their son at the Borisovo cemetery.
Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images
Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images
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Photo editing and production by Troy Witcher