More than 100 arrested as protests rage across Russia following death of Alexei Navalny

Police seen arresting mourners laying flowers to rival and critic of Vladimir Putin
William Mata17 February 2024

At least 100 protesters who gathered in Moscow following the death of Alexei Navalny have been arrested, according to human rights groups.

Navalny, 47, died while in a jail about 40 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been sentenced to 19 years under a "special regime".

In Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities across Russia, thousands of people braved strict anti-protest laws and laid flowers at makeshift memorials. More than 100 people were arrested, according to OVD-Info, a Russian rights group that monitors political repression in the country.

The death sparked a wave of condemnation from world leaders, with US President Joe Biden claiming that the Russian president was responsible for the passing of his rival.

Floral tributes were removed overnight by groups of unidentified people while police watched, videos on Russian social media show.

Russia’s federal prison service confirmed on Friday that Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is dead
AP

On Saturday, police blocked access to a memorial in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and detained several people there as well as in another Siberian city, Surgut, OVD-Info said.

Video shared on social media from Novosibirsk showed people sticking red flowers upright in the snow under the watchful eye of police who blocked access to the memorial with ticker tape.

In Moscow, flowers were removed overnight from a memorial near the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service by a large group while police looked on, a video showed.

But by morning more flowers had appeared.

The news of Mr Navalny's death comes less than a month before an election that will give Mr Putin another six years in power.

It shows "that the sentence in Russia now for opposition is not merely imprisonment, but death", said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

The circumstances of Mr Navalny's death are still largely unclear.

People lay flowers paying respect to Alexei Navalny
AP

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Mr Navalny felt sick after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness at the penal colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles) north-east of Moscow.

An ambulance arrived but he could not be revived, and the cause of death is still "being established", it said.

The dissident had been jailed since January 2021, when he returned to Moscow to face certain arrest after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.

He was later convicted three times, saying each case was politically motivated, and received a sentence of 19 years for extremism.

After the last verdict, Mr Navalny said he understood he was "serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime".

Hours after Mr Navalny's death was reported, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, made a dramatic appearance at a security conference in Germany where many leaders had gathered.

She said she had considered cancelling, "but then I thought what Alexei would do in my place. And I'm sure he would be here", adding that she was unsure if she could believe the news from official Russian sources.

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