France, March 2 -- French President Emmanuel Macron has praised the "courage" of thousands of Russians who risked arrest to mourn opposition leader Alexei Navalny as he was buried in Moscow on Friday. A Russia specialist in France sees signs the Kremlin is nervous.

Large crowds of Navalny supporters queued for hours on Frriday to pay their respects to the 47-year-old - President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critic for more than a decade.

Surrounded by a heavy police presence, they risked arrest chanting "No to war!", "Russia will be free and "Russia without Putin" as they streamed from a nearby church to the cemetery .

Some branded Putin a "murderer" and called for the release of political prisoners.

"Courage was needed to go and pay tri...