People have taken to the streets in several Russian cities following the news that Navalny has died in the Siberian penal colony where he has been imprisoned. Among them Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city. There, on Friday evening, people were seen mourning, lighting candles and laying flowers in memory of the country’s most prominent opposition politician.
In Saint Petersburg, over 30 people have been arrested, according to the independent Russian media platform Doxa on Telegram.
A man in Saint Petersburg was arrested by Russian police after laying flowers at a memorial to victims of political repression, reports the AP news agency whose photographer took the picture. Photo: AP/TT
After calls for protests were posted on social media, the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office issued a warning that protests are a violation of the law, news agencies report.
In the capital, hundreds are also said to have gathered to lay flowers at a spontaneous memorial site that sprung up at the Wall of Sorrows and the Solovetsk Stone, a memorial honoring the victims of the Gulag. At least four must have been arrested for placing flowers, reports Doxa.
People in Moscow lay flowers at the Solovetsk Stone in Moscow, in honor of Alexei Navalny’s memory. Photo: Dmitry Serebryakov/AP/TT
In Russia’s third-largest city, Novosibirsk, police cordoned off a monument to victims of political repression, reports say VGwhich refers to Radio Svoboda on Telegram. Similar reports are coming from several Russian cities, of people who have been arrested after being about to lay down flowers or who have been monitored by police in various ways.
Demonstrations were also held in other cities outside Russia during the evening. Among other things, outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm, London, Berlin and Washington in the USA.