Authorities originally said they could not release the body because they needed to perform post-mortem tests.
Navalnaya, 69, made a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin to release the body so that she could bury her son in dignity.
Lyudmila Navalnaya and Anatoly Navalny, parents of Alexei Navalny, arrive at church.credit: AP
As soon as it was published, at least one funeral director said he was banned from working with Navalny's supporters, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media. They also struggled to find a campervan.
“Anonymous people are calling people and threatening not to take Alexei’s body anywhere,” Yarmysh said on Thursday.
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Russian authorities have not yet announced the cause of death of Navalny (47 years old), who launched a campaign against official corruption and organized large protests as Putin's most ardent political enemy. Many Western leaders blamed the Russian president's killing, an accusation the Kremlin angrily rejected.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin of trying to disrupt a public funeral.
“We don’t want any special treatment, just to give people the opportunity to say goodbye to Alexei in a normal way,” Yulia Navalnaya wrote on X.
Moscow authorities refused to allow a separate memorial service for Navalny and slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Friday, citing coronavirus restrictions, according to politician Ekaterina Dontsova.
Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, was shot dead while walking on a bridge next to the Kremlin on the night of February 27, 2015.
Riot police near the church on Friday.credit: AP
Yarmysh urged his supporters around the world to lay flowers in Navalny's honor on Friday.
“Everyone who knew Alexei says what a cheerful, brave and honest person he was,” Yarmysh said Thursday.
“But the bigger truth is that even if you never met Alexei, you know what he was like too. I shared his investigations with him, went to rallies with him, and read his posts from prison. His example showed many people what to do even when things are scary.” And difficult.
