• Mourners chant ‘Navalny’ as coffin carried past

  • Church ringed by crash barriers, police

  • Parents kiss his face for last time

MOSCOW, March 1 (Reuters) - Thousands of Russians chanted Alexei Navalny’s name and said they would not forgive the authorities for his death as the opposition leader was laid to rest in Moscow on Friday.

In video streamed from the Borisovskyoe cemetery, Navalny’s mother Lyudmila and father Anatoly stooped over his open coffin to kiss him for the last time as a small group of musicians played.

Crossing themselves, mourners stepped forward to caress his face before a priest gently placed a white shroud over him and the coffin was closed.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic inside Russia, died at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16., sparking accusations from his supporters that he had been murdered. The Kremlin has denied any state involvement in his death.