The funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died earlier this month in a remote Arctic penal colony, will take place on Friday in Moscow after several locations declined to host the service, his spokesperson said.

His funeral will be held at a church in Moscows southeast Maryino district on Friday afternoon, Kira Yarmysh said Wednesday. The burial is to be at a nearby cemetery.

Navalny died in mid-February in one of Russias harshest penal facilities. Russian authorities said the cause of his death at age 47 is still unknown, and the results of any investigation are likely to be questioned abroad. Many Western leaders have already said they hold Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for his death.

Yarmysh spoke of the difficulties his team encountered in trying to find a site for a farewell event for Navalny.

Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, she said most venues said they were fully booked, with some refusing when we mention the surname Navalny, and one disclosing that funeral agencies were forbidden to work with us.

Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalnys Anti-Corruption Foundation, said the funeral was initially planned for Thursday - the day of Putins annual address to Russias Federal Assembly - but no venue would agree to hold it then.

The real reason is clear. The Kremlin understands that nobody will need Putin and his message on the day we say farewell to Alexei, Zhdanov wrote on Telegram.

In an interview with the independent Russian news site Meduza on Wednesday, Zhdanov said authorities were pressuring Navalnys relatives to have a quiet family funeral and move the burial to the Khovanskoye cemetery on Moscows southwestern outskirts.

They are again blackmailing relatives and saying: either hold a quiet family funeral, or nothing will really work out for you, Zhdanov said.

He said Navalnys lawyer, Vasily Dubkov, who helped Navalnys mother retrieve her sons body, was briefly detained on Tuesday as some kind of suspicious person when he went to visit the morgue, where Zhdanov said there currently is a strong police presence.

Zhadov declined to comment on the circumstances of Navalnys death, but repeated claims by close Navalny associate Maria Pevchikh that there had been negotiations for a possible prisoner exchange involving Navalny before his death.

The exchange was at the final stage and would have taken place with the mediation of the United Arab Emirates and Roman Abramovich, Zhdanov said.

Claims about negotiations for a prisoner exchange, which were repeated on social media by other Navalny aides, could not be independently confirmed.

Shortly after the announcement of the funeral plans, Navalnys widow, Yulia Navalnaya, addressed European lawmakers in Strasbourg.