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be gone in a flash designer sales at up to 70% are soft gilt.com today, vegas story of sensitive sunday at ten on cnn >> from london. >> this is cnn >> newsroom with max foster and bianca nobilo >> hello, and welcome to our viewers, joining us from the united states and all around the world. i'm bianca nobilo, live in london, and i want to get to our top story this hour. >> these >> are live pictures from outside the church of the icon of the mother of god in moscow that is where funeral ceremonies for russian opposition leader alexei navalny are set to begin in less than two hours time. but police are already putting on a show of force not far from there. and navalny's campus is not sure what will happen as we get closer. to the ceremonies. his widow is concerned, people who show up could end up behind bars while his aides say someone who's been trying to sabotage some of the farewell
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events. cnn has a team of reporters and analysts covering all of the latest details of alexey navalny's upcoming funeral for you and that includes where we begin, cnn, sebastian shaw ucla who's live in berlin for us. >> sebastian >> for an authoritarian regime in russia. this prospect of what could be a very popular moment for people to show their support for alexey navalny at the funeral ceremonies is potentially a problem for them with that in mind, tell us about the location shouldn't of whether funerals being held and if there's any indication that people are having issues or obstacles trying to get there that's right. >> morning. bianca, we've seen already this morning as our team on the ground has been able to report to us that 200 odd people have already started to come to pay their final respects to alexei navalny, who will be buried later today in moscow. but the journey of alexey navalny to come from his penal colony in yamalo-nenets,
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the northern reach a very northern region of russia inside the arctic circle to moscow has been one plagued with difficulty alexei navalny's mother was denied access to the body. there were accusations of blackmail coming from the authorities. navalny's team se, and even the debate about and discussions about how the funeral today will take place have been fraught. the authorities have denied the navalny's team the ability to hold a ceremony, not allowing them to book or hall and have even have even not allowed the team to use a hearse to transport alexei navalny's body from the church down to the borisov cemetery, which is two-and-a-half kilometers away. and we'll take people roughly 30 minutes to walk on foot but as you mentioned, the biggest issue and flashpoint that could come today is around the turnout of people who come to pay their final respects to alexei navalny and navalny's
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team have been at pains to stress whether you knew alexey or not? whether you met him in person, or whether you learn learn about him and his and his and his ideas through his investigative videos come out and pay your final respects as he is finally laid to rest. and that has been a difficulty that the russian authorities have been trying to grapple with from the moment that he died, bianca we saw people coming out and laying flowers at memorials and makeshift vigils across russia. and people were starting to be, to be detained even then, it remains to be seen what could happen today. bianca? >> and so following the news of navalny's death there was an outpouring of shock, horror, and grief across the west. >> and i believe >> h european countries have stated that they're going to apply sanctions. two, russian judges and members of the penitentiary system what impact does that likely to have? and is there broader support for
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sanctions in response to navalny's death from the eu well from, from across the western world that has been broad support for sanctions >> against the kremlin and president putin and that has been the case for many years. it even, even going back to the just before or just after ukraine was invaded by its neighbor the huge swaths of sanctions have been targeted against the russian regime to attend, essentially tried to cripple the economy and to make it known that the actions that the kremlin note-taking will be frowned upon. but i think it's it's poignant to say that look at the moment what we're seeing is the united states leading that drive. there was a 500 odd entities and people who were sanctioned last week by the biden administration and yulia navalnaya, herself, who's taken up the mantle of the opposition, has been going around european governments and
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was in the european parliament in strasburg earlier this week advocating for the eu to continue to support alexei navalny, take a listen to what she had to say >> my husband will never see what the beautiful russia of the future will look like. but we must see it. and i will do and di will do my best to make his dream come true >> and to make alexei navalny's dream come true. bianca, with the words of yulia navalnaya there. and i think it remains to be seen how exactly her platform and how she will take up the mantle of taking on alexei navalny's message. but for today, the main focus will be on moscow and finally being
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14 days after alexei navalny died, finally being able to lay the opposition leader to rest, bianca sebastian shukla in berlin for us, i know that you've met navalny yourself. so really appreciate your thoughts and your reporting today and nathan hodge former cnn moscow bureau chief, joins us. now in london to discuss this >> nathan said was indicating that we don't yet have a sense of what this turnout will be today. and also what the level of repression or police presence will be. what are you expecting from the time that you've spent in moscow and what you've seen in terms of the shifts since the invasion of ukraine? >> well, bianca, i know we know from our experience just for the past two years covering the fallout from the full scale invasion by russia, that the authorities are willing to crack down absolutely ruthlessly on anything that they see as an unsanctioned political demonstration. but i would even go back to nine years ago to the assassination of an opposition leader. also
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equal prominence but his nemtsov, who was gunned down on a bridge within plain view of the kremlin and there was a massive show of support for him. and even in the years following his assassination, there continued to be marches and in memorial of him and people with very often lay flowers on the bridge at the site of his assassination but the authorities would vary, come, come in very quickly, clean up those memorials, sweep away the flowers. they would be late again. so the authorities have made it very clear and this was at a time of course, when nemtsov was investigating russia's covert involvement in propping up separatists in a new eastern ukraine following the annexation of crimea, that was at the time when he was assassinated. and it was still not officially acknowledged by russia that they were essentially staging this kind of covert invasion, propping up separatists in eastern ukraine
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and now the picture has changed ever so dramatically since that point. i was in moscow, both in the run-up to and right after the full-scale invasion and i was out on the streets and i saw lots of people being detained, being hauled away for showing up, for instance, outside the embassy of ukraine in moscow being put on some police buses any kind of demonstration against the war was very quickly cracked down upon. and since then russia has introduced even more draconian laws restricting freedom of speech and essentially outlawed criticism of the military. so anything that would be seen by the authorities as a form of political protest i think will be dealt with quite harshly. and the russian state has an apparatus is unfortunately very experienced in dealing with street protests. >> bianca bearing in mind this tightening of draconian laws and crack down subsequent to the invasion. how risky would
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it be for any muscovites others to attend the ceremonies today? >> what i think most people who would be coming out would be mindful of the fact you know, that the authorities are not going to take a very positive view of any outpouring of support. just remember the fact that president putin himself really, he wouldn't even pronounce navalny's name by contrast, that cool him the gentleman this gentleman that would have been, he used very various formulae to avoid using his name. but by contrast, at nemtsov's funeral, there were government representatives who did show up at the time, not the senior-most, but there were people who were in government who did show up. but i think this shows how marginalized the opposition is. how many of them been hounded out of the country? and it's important to remember the big fact here, navalny made the quite bold and courageous move to return to russia after his poisoning, after his treatment in germany, after being poisoned by, by a
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nerve agent. and returning to russia knowing full well that he would face arrest, that he would likely face a long prison term, which is exactly what happened. but i think that he knew that he would in order to remain relevant and russian politics and not sort of slide into some sort of emigre or exile obscurity the only way to remain a player was for hints are returned with the kremlin also be concerned that wants navalny is laid to rest at borisov cemetery. that that might begin to act as a site of memorial or a kind of central petal forth for supporters, people who are dissenting. because often that can happen when people are martyred and pursue to political causes. >> and this is why this was such an extraordinary sort of tug of war between navalny's family and the government when initially the governments refused to hand over the body
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and there was talk of having basically a secret burial up in the far north north of the arctic circle in a place that would have been absolutely inaccessible for people who wanted to pay their respects or a place that absolutely would have been off-limits to becoming a site of pilgrimage. there so this is why there was this intense behind the scenes tussle to actually have his body turned over an even after that >> navalny's supporters have said that they've had obstruction when it comes to doing things like ordering a hearse, finding a suitable place for the memorial finding a burial ground. this has been this has been a constant tussle with the authorities and clearly whether it's acting on orders from above or just a general resistance across the board from officialdom they've been doing everything that they can to stand in the way of having a large public turnout, of having basically allowing this memorial to go forward. so i think clearly this is going
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to be a confrontational moment that we're going to see unfolding in the next few hours. >> since alexey navalny since the announcement that he'd died what have we heard from any russian officials or what is how would you characterize the general? russian state media reaction and government reaction overall in these last weeks. >> well, i mean, it's generally been in the case in the past that navalny is just not mentioned in state media. >> heat >> his death was noted by state media, but, you know, we're in the run-up to russian president putin being essentially reelected or reanointed into weeks. there's a presidential election that's happening in two weeks and for putin right now, this is a moment to show national unity this is a moment when basically most of the mention of navalny is it's going to be swept to the side. and i think that this is one of these cases where we had putin
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coming out yesterday in his address to the federal assembly, essentially his state of the union address. and the message that he's been trying to send is not only to his domestic audience, but to the rest of the world. is that the russian people? people are 100% behind him that he has the full support of the russian people as a wartime president and so anything that would be running contrary to that message, and i had mentioned earlier, of course, any kind of public criticism of the war can potentially land you in jail anything that i think would be seen as an act of political protest at particularly this time is going to be seen as something that i think generally we have to see what the reaction of the authorities is going to be but i think that they would generally see it as something that crosses the line nathan hodge do stand by for us. we'll be speaking later in the show >> the funeral >> service for russian dissident alexey navalny is set to get underway in less than two hours now, we're covering
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ten on cnn one less than two hours from the funeral of russian >> opposition leader alexey navalny and the crowd of mourners outside the chart church in moscow is growing many of them are holding flowers. we're also seeing a heavy police presence ahead of the farewell ceremony. >> a >> major concerns that rational authorities will crack down on attendees hundreds of people were already arrested at makeshift memorials for navalny in dozens of russian cities, according to a human rights group he was, of course, one of russia's most high-profile opposition leaders. >> and >> spent years criticizing vladimir putin, navalny's death came just weeks before the presidential elections alexander baunov is a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. he joins us now via skype from florence, italy, great to speak to you again, alexander i'd like to pick up on that last point about the crackdowns on people people who've wanted to pay their respects or were moralized
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alexander navalny in these preceding weeks, what more can you tell us about that? >> at first i have many friends who are planning to go despite the risk of clashes with the police provocations or simply being labeled or aged some least of unreliable citizens, which is an important risk despite this risk, i have people who are going there to pay their last respects as you told it, as you put it, a position the main opposition leader of russia and it's important moment for them and how do you think that the risk that is posed to people who do decide to go today >> because of the draconian laws and crack downs we've been speaking about them earlier in the show what would you expect turn out to be for the funerals? aleksey navalny >> i think that authorities
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will try to allow some people to come after they have allowed the funeral at all but to diminish the number of those presence, so they may allow some people and then we'll try, we'll seek to isolate the others who would like to come to because the propaganda seeks to ice the late people from each other, convincing them. i mean, those who are opposing the regime, daughters who would like to support the position to the regime. they are convincing them that they are alone, that they are isolated, their views are marginal, marginal, and they are all enemies of the society as a whole. and such moments as a funeral over main opposition leader is a moment when people can see they are not alone. there are not marginal. they are there are
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basically many to see each other in the ice and that's why in the beginning the regime was trying to not to allow the funeral at all. to conceal the borger not to give out the body to the family. but finally, decided to allow this now, i expect they attempt to restrict the number of this present alexander how large is this funeral looming for russians today? obviously, we on cnn, we're covering it for hours. the west is paying his lots of attention because of what alexey navalny represented and his values given the tight control of the media in russia as well, just give us a sense of what this day will mean for russians on mass got two types of state run media. now, one are old school official media,
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but tv channels, state on radios and they won't be any mentioned. this funeral, it all another state run media are the propaganda and social media channels. so propaganda channels and telegram, owned by pro, pro regime personalities, pro-regime propagandist. they will blame all those and they have hundreds of thousands of subscribers they will blame all those who are going to come for the funerals is traitors as enemies of the motherland all these usual retiring and they're of course some remnants of opposition media. again, in the social media or in immigration. that view a cover. these most important event >> public >> events related to the position activity after the
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beginning of the war. and this is true because after the beginning of the war, the distinctions became so hard that this is going to be to my appeal indian, the most numerous and the most visible gathering over the opposition supporters in russia in two years how do you give the smaller numbers? but it's important as an event >> absolutely. how do you think alexey navalny will be remembered? in russia in the different parts of russian society. what will that legacy be? >> it depends very much about shelf of russia's future. russia's immediate future is not bright for my opinion, but remember for instance, when you all lending in lisbon, you are lending can an airport named after the general lingard with
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there wasn't a position two leader killed in early '60s by the crater ship. salazar in early 60s since 1962, if i'm not mistaken, he was skewed by able to get special authorities on spanish soil. and the dead time it was lake. the story is over. nothing will happen. he was not he won't be remembered by, by, by the society. but after 12 years, the main airport of the controversy was named after him i mapo, that some like these may happen or russia. russia is changeable. russia is not unchangeable. it can change. we have seen 30 years ago how much it can alexander baunov. thank you very much for joining us this morning and the crowds all
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growing in moscow in front of the church where alexey navalny's funeral is due to take place as mourners gathered to pay their respects to the man who dared to challenge that, if putin will be live after the break >> we're here to get your side of the store. >> why do we keep ending up here? >> you can't write this stuff. >> united states of scandal with jake tatler sunday at nine on see, i'm sure lay and i
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anderson cooper sunday at eight on cnn welcome back to cnn newsroom. i'm bianca nobilo. you are looking at live pictures from moscow where the funeral of russian opposition leader alexei navalny is set to get underway about 90 minutes from now, police already out in force near the church where the funeral will take place services will be held or due to be held at the church of the icon of mother of god is not far from the cemetery where navanly will be laid to rest later on. navalny's aides say that there have been efforts by unknown individuals to sabotage the services and they're worried it's about what will happen as the day progresses navalny's widow is concerned that people who show up to honor him could be arrested like hundreds of others who've been detained at makeshift memorials in recent days. let's bring in former cnn moscow bureau chief nathan hodge. she's with me in london
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and nathan just into cnn, i want to let our viewers know that we've had reports that alexey navalny's body has not yet been released, according to a family spokesperson, that spokesperson has tweeted that the body hadn't been released. this is as of ten minutes ago, he wrote on twitter that the relatives arrived at the morgue for 10:00 a.m. local time so that would be roughly two hours ago. i think then the spokesperson added that there could be delays to some of today's events as a result of the fact that his body hasn't been released. give us some context so and why officials would be making this difficult. >> well, i mean, first of all, this is a continuation and it seems of the saga that we've seen over just unfolding over the past two weeks following on the news of navalny's death and the refusal initially of the authorities at the prison in russia's far north to handover the body to his
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mother. there was what one could only describe as an incredible bureaucratic song and dance with mother and a lawyer for navalny's they'd going up to the prison. this is an north of the arctic circle trying to get the body of her son turned over and this quite shocking discussion about the fact that know that the authority is where we're applying pressure according to the opposition to either have a secret burial fail to not hand over the body. so there was an incredible behind the scenes tossle about this. and navalny supporters really called out russian president putin over this. basically pointing out the fact that he's always cast himself as a defender of traditional values as, as sort of a religiously observed prevent, and devout person. he makes great public show of going to church he's got the full support of the russian orthodox church. he's, he's forged an important alliance.
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in fact, that the church, and this is basically in their view. they said, well, this is hypocrisy. >> how can one be sort of a proponents of trump? additional values of defending the family this is the theme that putin loves the bang on about. when you're basically standing in the way of allowing people to have their last farewell filename. >> yeah, i was going to say that. i mean, it's a it's an extremely ignoble look for anybody to be interfering at that time. so a family it's an hodge. thank you for your analysis. do stay very close. let's bring in cnn's matthew chance, who is live in moscow. matthew described to us how things are playing out, where you are, and how all of this has been covered in russia, culminating in today's funeral. >> sorry, i lost contact with the shooter then. can you i don't think we have math. matthew, where going to see if we can get him back. we'll definitely have him on later on
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in the show, but we can go back to nathan, who's still with us here today than we were just discussing how bizarre really this look is as for the russian government and government officials to be making it difficult for navalny's family to have access to his body at this time. the fact that they've still done that, just that just mean that they don't feel as it's not being reported widely in the russian press that that's an issue for them well, i mean, first of all, that, you know, we're kind of an information bind here is alexander baunov said earlier, there's sort of two official russian media. there are the another state television than there are the sort of thumb pro kremlin telegram and social media channels obviously, they've got their own agenda that they're trying to push. but there's not a complete information blockade and russia, people can, there are ways there are emigre and exiled media there is opposition media, however small and embattled and how however much they've been exiled. so this this narrative that's
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being pushed forward, basically that the government officials are essentially standing in the way of people who wants to pay their respects to someone two weeks after their death. this can penetrate it does put the authorities in a bind. how much longer can they put off handing over the body how can they stand in the way? reasonably of a funeral obviously the concern, as we take a broader picture of what's unfolding here. i know it clearly there is a concern just given the police presence there that what could be a funeral can morph into a political funeral, that it could you know, turn into a larger confrontation. i'm certain that of course the authorities are prepared to make arrests. they've they've shown absolute willingness to crack down ruthlessly on anything that they see is unauthorized protest nathan hodge, standby for us. thank you. >> let's >> go now, live to cnn's matthew chance again in moscow
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for us matthew just checking the cons. do you have me? >> we >> don't have matthew. we're having a little bit of an issue with our with our feeds that nathan, let's focus on what the future of russia's political opposition looks like without alexey navalny, we've obviously been hearing a lot justifiably and appropriately from his widow over the last few weeks. tell us what you expect to see you next. >> well, i mean, it is a bleak picture as one expects to see political competition returned to russia. you know, the space for the opposition to exist in his become ever, ever smaller over more than, well now 24 years of putin being in power and independent media have gradually been shuttered and then there was sort of a final curtain coming down and a lot of ways with the full scale invasion of ukraine, with more oppressive, repressive laws being introduced. that crackdown on the independence of the media and created ever
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less space for there to be any kind of ideas that compete with the official line so in a lot of ways, what we're seeing here, i mean, one could sort of metaphorically say this is kind of a funeral for the russian opposition inside of russia if you're trying to tease out a bit of symbolism here, but navalny, navalny's supporters, his wife, have made clear that their fight is going to continue. it's going to tinubu inside of russia, not just being marginalized and exile. and that's why we've seen this sort of remarkable emergence just over the past two weeks of yulia navalnaya, his widow, basically assuming the mantle of the opposition and stepping in one of the things about navalny was he was seen as he wasn't charismatic leader was this sort of single unifying figurehead in a country were basically political competition is just not allowed. president putin is going to be standing in what we're calling an election two weeks from now,
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but it's more or less a ria anointment and they're not allowing anyone who let's say, opposed to the full-scale as opposed to the invasion of ukraine who is not essentially a supporter of the kremlin. i think for the kremlin, really the important thing is, is turnout you know, basically showing that you have this plebiscite that says that putin has the mandate, he has the people behind him and a great deal of the population does get its information from state media and therefore, opposition voices just generally are not heard genuine opposition opposition voices. i'm not talking about essentially loyal pro kremlin kind of pocket opposition parties that are in the parliament. i >> think that this is this is. a moment where it shows how fractured and how embattled russia's opposition has long been and, you know, but the fact that they are able to muster people on the streets, i mean, thousands of russians
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were arrested just following the full-scale invasion, risking arrest and often being arrested despite the fact that there isn't the middle ms around apparatus of state that is repressive. >> just very briefly to you before the break. >> other >> than alexey navalny's wife assuming this mantle, is there any obvious successor to him? >> i mean, i would say that there's no clear sort of navalny in many ways took over. i mentioned earlier, after buddies nemtsov, he was seen as sort of the most prominent leader of the opposition and does the opposition need to have a single charismatic leader in order to be effective? that's, that is in many ways, kind of the big question here but i mean, part, part of the problem has been that putin has created this system of vertical power, which doesn't allow for political competition. so it does, it does create a system where you
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know there is, it's very difficult for somebody to step forward because of the risk of arrest or imprisonment. but there's also no clear successor to putin. it's also worth pointing out. i mean, he's going to be in office potentially until another six-year term until 2030 after, you know, what's inevitably seen as his reelection in two weeks. what's widely seen as the outcome is a forgone conclusion. but has he begun the process himself of anointing his that's also an important political question for the future of russia. >> certainly, nathan hodge do continue to standby. thank you so much. supporters are preparing to bid their final goodbyes to russian opposition leader alexey navalny. but as they get ready for a funeral service, police not too far. we'll have an update on that >> we're headliner was vegas. that's what i want to do. >> vegas, the story of sin city
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well, looking at live >> pictures of the church, of the icon of the mother of god in moscow. the funeral services for russian opposition leader alexey navalny was supposed to take place that in less than 90 minutes, a short time after that, he was expected to be buried at a nearby cemetary. but now we are getting word from navalny's spokesperson that navalny's body has not yet been released to his relatives. it's not clear why the spokesperson says that some of today's events could naturally be delayed as a consequence, navalny was the most vocal critic of president vladimir putin. he died mysteriously two weeks ago in siberia, but he was serving a 19 year sentence for various crimes officials say he died of natural causes. the kremlin has denied any involvement in navalny's sudden death let's bring back in former cnn moscow bureau chief nathan hodge with me here in london. nathan, before we get onto the broader picture, i think it's probably important to address today on the day of the funeral, the circumstances around navalny's death, i mean, even if they
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were of natural causes, of course is all speculation. we don't know what he was subjected to the longstanding concerns about his health do mean that there is culpability here, regardless. >> well, i mean, first of all, anyone who's sort of a long-standing observer of the russian prison system sees, you know, quite clearly that this is a system that has set up to crush people and this is the point that navalny and his supporters were always making there is a long tradition, and i'm saying going back, not just to the soviet days, but even if it's rs era of using internal exile and imprisonment as a way of quashing any kind of domestic political opposition and navalny was kept in extremely harsh conditions. and this was a man who had recovered from a near fatal poisoning before returning to russia. now, i mean, we did see pictures of him when he was still alive in the days before
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in video link court appearances, and he looked he looked healthy. i mean, he looked sort of i mean, he was quite gaunt and clearly he was being held in heart harsh conditions. i mean, but he did manage to you and i think one of his sort of political gifts was that he had a sort of a subversive sense of humor. one that sort of relate some kind of optimism even under the worst kind of circumstances. and he was he was getting messages out and getting messages, for instance, on to telegram from prison. and he was making fun of the prison conditions. the horrible music that was being blared by patriotic pop songs that were being played over the loudspeaker. when he got up in the morning. but i mean you it is worth pointing out here that we still there are a lot of unanswered questions about what the cause of death were. what, you know, what exactly led to his death. i mean, but one thing is certainly clear that the trials, the additional
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sentences that he was given all pointed to a system that was basically meant to ensure that he stayed behind bars and out of politics for as long as possible. >> and i can thank you. do stand by for us. let's now bring in cnn's matthew chance live in moscow for us. matthew described to us how things are evolving, how they're playing out, where you are, and how it was this is being covered in russia culminating in today's expect a funeral yeah, no well look i, mean, you join me outside the quench my thirst church >> in one of the suburbs of moscow is actually the suburb where alexey navalny lived for many years with his family and there are hundreds of people that have so far gathered outside the church. it's where the funeral ceremony is. i'm planned to be held. amid a big, tight security operation as well. people have come from all over the region. in fact, i spoke to people from some
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petersburg, from lychee novgorod, from moscow have come here to pay their respects. they say because they're so sad and so distraught about what has happened. let's give you an idea of the kind of numbers we're talking about you can see the line stretching out into the distance. we can't see where the line ends. and so we're talking hundreds of people possibly several thousand at this point, it's not clear. it difficult to assess. it's also, as i mentioned, a very tight security operation and there are police lining the tyre root of this queue of people, this line of people. and there are defensive barriers. you crowd control barriers been erected as well to try and control the crowds which are expected to come and pay their respects to alexey navalny's late opposition leader. that's sort of not a bad sign in the center. it's that there is a lot of concern about how the authorities are going to respond to this kind of
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outpouring of support for a prominent opposition figure like alexei navalny. we've seen over the course of the past several weeks since his death two weeks ago, people have been arrested in their hundreds, according to human rights groups, similar i believe, for laying flowers at makeshift memorials across the country. and so there's a lot of concern that there could be a very heavy handed approach by the authorities when it comes to this much bigger outpouring of grief for the late opposition leader at the moment though, i should say that there's been no sign of trouble that we have seen in terms of the police the crowds that have gathered. kira yarmysh, who is alexey navalny's was alexey navalny's spokes woman spokesperson said there is a problem though, and the latest problem is that the body of navalny has not yet been handed over to the team, to the family and so they could mean there are some delays taking place to the funeral services that have been planned. the funeral is beds beginning about an
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afternoon with that good that could slide according to navalny's team, there have been a whole host of obstacles that have been set up by the authorities to delay and >> disrupt these proceedings. for instance since last night the navalny team said they were unable to get a hearse to book a hearse to take the coffin from the church to the south cemetery where it's going to be finally, when volunteers are finally going to be laid to rest, it was a whole problem getting a church and a cemetery books in the first place. no one wanted to take the body of alexey navalny. and of course, there was a big delay as well in the handover of the remains of alexey navalny to the family, it took the authorities about eight days in order in order for them to do that. and so look, the suspicion and the allegation on the part of the navalny team and the navalny family is the authorities wanted to do everything they could to prevent a mass public funeral like this one taking place because we're just a couple of weeks before a
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presidential election. in this country where vladimir putin, the russian president, is expected to be reappointed in that position for a fifth term of my apologies. and this is exactly the kind of show of support for the opposition that the kremlin wanted to avoid. but they have it. that's the situation. now hundreds, if not thousands of people that have gathered outside this church in the suburbs of moscow people coming from all over the place that pay their last respects to alexey navalny yeah. income >> as matthew chance for us in moscow, who is on the street outside of the church where the funeral of alexey navalny is scheduled to take place later on today. as matthew was saying there are some unforeseen obstacles at the moment. namely, we're hearing from navalny's former spokeswoman that the body has not been released to the families, so we will keep you posted on all of those developments. so crowds are continuing to gather in
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moscow to bid their final goodbye to opposition leader alexey navalny that is happening under a watchful eye of russian policed. the very latest for you when we come back >> the whole story with your son, cooper sunday on cnn, are you embarrassed by your bathroom well, it's time to stop hiding your bathroom. jacuzzi bathroom model can install a beautiful new bath or shower that you can be proud of in one day. and they'll do it at a price you can afford. in fact, there's never been a better time to call. we're giving you 50% of installation and postponing all payments for up to one year. >> having someone uses that shower is definitely an embarrassment. i am so excited and proud of my home, but not letting if someone go in there. >> so pretty in new and the tub is so deepen uk can't wait to just like a climate and just lay there. >> i did not like my bathroom before and was embarrassed by it. >> yeah
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70% of guilt the.com today >> welcome back. well, this morning we all following the preparations ahead of the funeral of russian opposition leader alexei navalny and breaking news just now we've heard that his body has been handed over to his relatives according to his former spokeswoman, kira yarmysh, she also tweeted that a hearse will soon be heading over to the church. it had initially been reported by that same spokesperson that the family had been unable to secure the body earlier on today and they hadn't been handed over. we also know as we've been speaking to our analysts and cnn reporters earlier, that there was an issue with the families securing hearse as well. so at the moment, all of those obstacles seem to have been overcome. the late activist's made the announcement ahead of the funeral that it was set to begin in a little over an hour. now, cnn teams on the ground have seen crowds gathering
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hours ahead of the ceremony gradually growing as well. we've been speaking to our correspondent, matthew chance, who is there. but police are putting on a show of force with videos showing officers deployed on nearby rooftops as well. navalny spokesperson also said that some of the farewell events could be delayed and of course, there is concerned there is concern that those who attend may be arrested or may come under police crackdown themselves will be monitoring throughout the day that does it here for this hour of cnn newsroom, i'm bianca nobilo in london. cnn this morning is next offer quick break with more of this continuing coverage of alexey navalny's upcoming funeral >> we're here to get your side of the store. >> why do we keep ending up here? >> you can't write this stuff. >> united states of scandal with jake tapper on sunday, a
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