AP PHOTOS: Russians say final farewell at funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Thousands of mourners gathered in Moscow to bid farewell to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Friday, two weeks after his still-unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony.

Navalny’s parents, Lyudmila and Anatoly, sat by the open casket, cradling and kissing their son’s face before the coffin was finally closed and lowered into the ground.

Mourners threw flowers into the path of Navalny’s hearse or queued for hours to lay tributes at his grave, throwing handfuls of dirt on the casket as they paid their respects.