Heavy police presence intended to discourage crowds. At least 91 people were detained, according to the rights group OVD-Info. Under a heavy police presence, thousands of people bade farewell Friday to opposition leader Alexei Navalny at his funeral in Moscow after his still-unexplained death two weeks ago in an Arctic penal colony.

The crowds who thronged to honor Navalny outside a church and cemetery in a snowy southeastern suburb of the capital chanted slogans for him and against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, turning the event into one of the largest recent displays of dissent. But police did not act against them.

“Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged those gathering in Moscow and other places not to break the law, saying any ‘unauthorized [mass] gatherings’ are violations.”

At least 91 people were detained at events across Russia in Navalny’s memory, said OVD-Info, a rights group that tracks political arrests, with most stopped while trying to lay flowers at monuments dedicated to victims of Soviet repression. When his death was announced Feb. 16, police detained hundreds who tried to leave flowers.

Background: Russian authorities seek to limit political impact as Navalny family lays opposition leader to rest after penal-colony death

Navalny was buried after a short Russian Orthodox ceremony, with vast crowds waiting outside the church and then streaming to the fresh grave with flowers.

Navalny’s widow, Yulia, who was not believed to have been at the funeral — former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul told NBC she was in Palo Alto, Calif., with her daughter, a Stanford student — but has vowed to continue his work, thanked him for “26 years of absolute happiness.”

“I don’t know how to live without you, but I will try to do it in a way that you up there are proud of me and happy for me,” she wrote on Instagram.

See: Navalny’s widow tells EU leaders she plans to ‘keep fighting’ Vladimir Putin

The couple’s 23-year-old daughter, Daria, also shared a tribute to her father: “Ever since I was a child, you taught me to live by certain principles. To live with dignity. You gave your life for me, for mum, for [Daria’s brother] Zakhar, for Russia,” she wrote on Instagram. “I promise you that I will live my life in the way that you taught me, in a way that will make you proud — and most importantly, with a smile on my face.”



The funeral followed a battle with authorities over the release of his body. His team said several Moscow churches refused to hold the funeral for the man who crusaded against official corruption and organized massive protests. Many Western leaders blamed the death on the Russian leader, an accusation the Kremlin rejected.