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Feb. 28 (UPI) -- A funeral for the late Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny will be held Friday in Moscow, a spokesman for his FBK anti-corruption foundation said. The service will be held at a church in the afternoon in Maryino in the south of the capital followed by a burial at the nearby Borisovskoye Cemetery, FBK spokesman Ivan Zhdanov said in a post on X on Wednesday.
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Zhdanov said the family had wanted to bury Navalny on Thursday but had been blocked by authorities because they did not want the funeral to draw attention from President Vladimir Putin's state of the nation address to the Federal Assembly taking place at the same time.
"It quickly became clear that by Feb. 29 there was not a single person who could dig a grave. By the 1st it is possible and by the 28th it is possible, but on the 29th the grave is not being dug," said Zhdanov."
"The real reason is clear. The Kremlin understands that nobody will need Putin and his message on the day of farewell to Alexei."
Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmish said Tuesday they were finding it extremely challenging to secure a venue with funeral homes either "fully booked" or turning them away when they found out whose funeral it was.
"In one place, we were told that the funeral agencies were forbidden to work with us. After a day of searching, we still haven't found the farewell hall," she wrote on social media.
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, confirmed the timings in an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg ahead of a debate on Navalny's death and the "dangerous situation" of opposition figures, journalists and human rights defenders in Russia, with a resolution to be put to a vote.
She told MEPs she did not know whether the funeral, which is expected to attract hundreds of supporters and well-wishers, would go off peacefully or whether authorities would arrest people.
"Putin killed my husband. On his orders, Alexei was tortured for three years. He was starved in a tiny stone cell, cut off from the outside world and denied visits, phone calls and then even letters," she said.
"And then they killed him. Even after that they abused his body and abused his mother," she said referring to authorities' refusal to let Lyudmila Navalny see her son for eight days in an alleged effort to get her to agree to bury him in private following his death in an Arctic penal colony earlier this month.
"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin must answer for what he has done to my country. Putin must answer for what he has done to a neighboring, peaceful country. And Putin must answer for everything he has done to Alexei," Navalnaya said.
The Kremlin on Monday rejected allegations that Nalvany's death was ordered from the top, or that it had been coercing the family over his funeral.
"The Kremlin has nothing to do with this. Naturally, there can be no pressure from the Kremlin. This is yet another absurd statement by [Navalny's] followers," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
