Mourners arrested

Moscow police destroy memorial for Navalny

(Bild: kameraOne/SOTA VISION)

The death of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny is causing horror - especially in Russia. In view of the repression by Putin's power apparatus, even public mourning is dangerous there. On Friday evening, dozens of arrests were made at memorial events and a memorial site was destroyed (see video above).

Russia's police are cracking down on mourning supporters of Navalny. By late Friday evening, more than 100 people had been detained at memorial events in several Russian cities, according to the civil rights organization Ovd-Info. Arrests were reported in the capital Moscow, the Baltic metropolis of St. Petersburg and six other cities.

Journalists also arrested
The people had come to lay flowers in memory of Navalny, who, according to official reports, died at the age of 47 in a prison camp in the far north of Russia. According to media reports, journalists were among those arrested.

Many flowers were laid by mourners at the memorial stone, which originates from the first camp of the gulag system on the Solovetsky Islands.(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Men dressed in black destroyed the signs of mourning.(Bild: kameraOne/SOTA VISION)

In Moscow, a large police contingent was in the city center until late into the night. In the meantime, people had waited in a long queue to lay flowers at the so-called Solovetsky Stone, which is dedicated to victims of political repression. The EU ambassador to Russia also laid a bouquet of flowers there (see X-Post below). Many were allowed through to the stone, but were intimidated by police officers and constantly warned to leave the site quickly.

Flowers were hastily cleared away
Late on Friday evening, unknown men in black clothing - presumably police officers - were seen destroying the memorial site: they hurriedly packed the many flowers that had been laid down into garbage bags. A video from the independent media platform SOTA shows uniformed police officers standing guard nearby (see above).

Since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine around two years ago in particular, Russia's power apparatus has taken a tough and repressive approach to dissenters in its own country. As a result, there are hardly any major protests.

However, the news of Navalny's death has sparked new criticism of Putin, who wants to be re-elected for a further six years in office in the presidential election in less than a month's time.