There is still a lot of fuss about the funeral of late Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, scheduled for this Friday. Widow Yulia Navalnaya is now accusing authorities of making fun of her husband’s memory. The Greens’ foreign policy spokeswoman in the National Council can also sing a song about this. Beinhart told Moscow’s Austrian Foreign Ministry that she would not be granted a visa for the funeral.
“The fact that we have no place for a civil funeral and to say goodbye to Alexei is the fault of exactly two people: Vladimir Putin and (Moscow mayor, note) Sergei Sobyanin,” Navalnaya said angrily on Twitter-X. The “people in the Kremlin” killed Navalny, made fun of his corpse, then made fun of his mother and now they are destroying his memory too. “We don’t want special treatment,” Navalnaya said. People should just be given the opportunity to say goodbye to Alexei in a normal way: ‘Please don’t bother us.’
The Austrian foreign policy spokeswoman for the Greens in the National Council, Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, also wanted to attend on Friday. As soon as the time of the funeral became clear on Wednesday morning, she asked the Russian embassy for an appointment to issue a visa, Ernst-Dziedzic said. The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also in contact with the embassy and tried to ensure that she received this visa. Her office has already booked a flight to Moscow via Dubai. “But then the answer came directly from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: No, that is not possible,” she said. At the same time, Ernst-Dziedzic himself had no information that other Austrian politicians planned to attend the funeral of the Russian opposition leader.
Something like this has never happened to her before…
As a mandate, nothing like this had ever happened to her. After all, issuing visas to people with a diplomatic passport is a formality and there have never been any delays, the politician explained. “For example, I’m flying to Turkmenistan next week and it took ten minutes to issue my visa,” she said. A spokesperson for the Russian embassy said on Wednesday evening that he was not aware of the case.
“Since it is not possible to commemorate Navalny on site in Moscow, I will hold a commemoration here in Austria at the same time as the funeral on Friday at noon and hand over a wreath to the embassy,” the national councilor announced. Unfortunately, she never met Navalny in person; they only met once at an event.
Navalny’s cause of death remains unclear
Authorities said Navalny died in a prison camp in the Siberian Arctic region of Yamal. The circumstances of his death are not clear. The politician, weakened by the 2020 poison attack and repeated solitary confinement in the camp, is said to have collapsed during a tour of the icy prison and died despite attempts to revive him. According to Navalny’s team, the death certificate lists “natural” causes but vehemently points out that Kremlin ruler Putin definitely killed him. The politician was 47 years old.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
