Extract from ABC News
Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, said her late husband's body had been abused and she was not sure if his funeral on Friday would be a peaceful event.
Ms Navalnaya spoke to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, 12 days after her husband died suddenly in a Russian penal colony at the age of 47.
"The funeral will take place the day after tomorrow and I'm not sure yet whether it will be peaceful or whether police will arrest those who have come to say goodbye to my husband," she told MPs, as she received multiple standing ovations.
She urged European politicians and officials to investigate financial flows in the West linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies.
"Putin is the leader of an organised criminal gang. This includes poisoners and assassins but they're just puppets. The most important thing is the people close to Putin — his friends, associates and keepers of mafia money," she said.
"You and all of us must fight the criminal gang. And the political innovation here is to apply the methods of fighting organised crime, not political competition. Not statements of concern but the search for mafia associates in your countries, for discreet lawyers and financiers who are helping Putin and his friends to hide money."
Ms Navalnaya accused Mr Putin of having her husband killed, an allegation the Kremlin has angrily rejected.
"Putin killed my husband," she said.
"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,"
Speaking in English, her voice sometimes faltering, she described Mr Putin as a "bloody monster" and told MPs it was not possible to negotiate with him.
She has promised to continue his work, urging Russians to share her rage against Mr Putin, and has met Western politicians, including US President Joe Biden last week.
Navalny's funeral to be held on Friday
The funeral of Mr Navalny, who died earlier this month in a remote Arctic penal colony, will take place on Friday in Moscow after several locations declined to host the service, his spokesperson said.
Kira Yarmysh, his spokesperson, posted on X that a service for Mr Navalny would be held on Friday at 2pm (local time) in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in the Moscow district of Maryino where he used to live.
Mr Navalny would then be buried at the Borisovskoye cemetery, which is located on the other side of the Moskva River to the south, Ms Yarmysh said.
Such services, presided over by a priest and accompanied by choral singing, usually allow people to file past the open casket of the deceased to say their farewell.
The chosen Russian Orthodox church is an imposing five-domed white building in a built-up suburb of southeastern Moscow.
It was not immediately clear how the authorities would ensure crowd control.
But judging from previous gatherings of Navalny supporters — whom the authorities have designated as US-backed extremists — a heavy police presence is likely and the authorities will break up anything they deem to resemble a political demonstration under protest laws.
Struggles to get funeral venues
Ms Yarmysh spoke of the difficulties his team encountered in trying to find a site for a "farewell event" for Mr Navalny.
Writing on X, she said most venues reported they were fully booked, with some "refusing when we mention the surname 'Navalny'," and one disclosing that "funeral agencies were forbidden to work with us."
Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Mr Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, said the funeral was initially planned for Thursday – the day of Mr Putin's annual address to Russia's Federal Assembly – but no venue would agree to hold it then.
"The real reason is clear. The Kremlin understands that nobody will need Putin and his message on the day we say farewell to Alexei," Mr Zhdanov wrote on Telegram.
Ms Navalnaya said she was not sure whether the funeral service would be peaceful or whether the police would make arrests.
The Kremlin has denied state involvement in his death and has said it is unaware of any agreement to free Mr Navalny prior to his death.
Mr Navalny's death certificate, according to supporters, said he died of natural causes.
His mother last week accused the authorities of trying to blackmail her into holding a private funeral for her son by initially withholding his body, an assertion the Kremlin called absurd.
AP/Reuters
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