Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s funeral drew thousands of mourners, showcasing the late dissident’s stature as a “martyr” against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

“This is basically what creates, like, martyrdom,” Dr. Konstanin Sonin, an expatriate Russian economist now affiliated with the University of Chicago, told the Washington Examiner. “This will breed this feeling of his future resurrection. And so, I think his name will be growing stronger.”