Kremlin: "Not possible"

Green politician not allowed to attend Navalny funeral

The "people in the Kremlin" killed Alexei Navalny, made fun of his corpse, then laughed at his mother and now they are also disgracing his memory, his widow Yulia Navalnaya is convinced.(Bild: APA/AFP/KAREN MINASYAN)

There is still a lot of fuss about the funeral of the deceased Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny planned for next Friday. His widow, Yulia Navalny, accuses the authorities of making fun of her husband's memory. The Greens' foreign policy spokesperson in the National Council can also tell you a thing or two about this. Beinhart told the Austrian Foreign Ministry that she would not receive a visa for the funeral.

"The fact that we have no place for a civil funeral service and farewell to Alexei is the fault of exactly two people - Vladimir Putin and (the Moscow mayor, note) Sergei Sobyanin," Navalnaya expressed her anger on Twitter-X. The "people in the Kremlin" had killed Navalny, made fun of his corpse, then laughed at his mother, and now they were also dragging his memory into the mud. "We don't want any special treatment," Navalnaya said. People should simply be given the opportunity to say goodbye to Alexei in a normal way: "Please just don't disturb us."

Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, the Austrian foreign policy spokesperson for the Greens in the National Council, also wanted to be present on Friday. As soon as the time of the funeral was clear on Wednesday morning, she asked the Russian embassy for an appointment to issue a visa, said Ernst-Dziedzic. The Austrian Foreign Ministry had also been in contact with the embassy and had tried to ensure that she received this visa. Her office had already booked a flight to Moscow via Dubai. "But then the answer came directly to the Foreign Ministry: no, that's not possible," she explained. At the same time, Ernst-Dziedzic herself had no information that other Austrian politicians were planning to attend the funeral of the Russian opposition leader.

The Green politician Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

Nothing likethis has ever happened to her ...
 As an elected representative, nothing like this has ever happened to her. After all, issuing visas to people with diplomatic passports is a formality and there have never been any delays, the politician explained. "For example: I'm flying to Turkmenistan next week and the visa issue took ten minutes," she recounted. A spokesperson for the Russian embassy explained on Wednesday evening that he was not informed about the case.

A police car blocks the road to the Borisovskoye cemetery in the Russian capital, where the funeral of the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny will take place on Friday.(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

"As it is not possible to commemorate Navalny on site in Moscow, I will organize a commemoration here in Austria at the same time as the funeral at 12.00 noon on Friday and hand over a wreath to the embassy," announced the National Councillor. Unfortunately, she had never met Navalny in person; they had only crossed paths once at an event.

Navalny's cause of death still unclear
Navalny died in a penal camp in the Siberian Arctic region of Yamal, according to the authorities. The circumstances of his death have not been clarified. 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 yard and died despite attempts to resuscitate him. According to Navalny's team, the death certificate mentions "natural" causes, but vehemently emphasizes that he was definitely murdered by Kremlin ruler Putin. The politician was 47 years old.