Russian police detained more than 100 people in spontaneous rallies in tribute to the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who died in prison on Fridays, the human rights defense group OVD-Info reported this Saturday.
(Also read: Navalny's team accuses Russia of retaining his remains to 'cover its tracks')
The main Russian opposition figure, 47, was serving a 19-year sentence in an Arctic prison when prison authorities announced his death on Friday. news that generated shock among his supporters.
On Friday night, groups of people across Russia laid flowers at makeshift memorials at monuments to political dissidents and there were reports of arrests, according to images posted on social media.
The OVD-Info organization indicated on its website that, according to its report on Saturday morning, “more than 101 people were detained in ten cities”, the majority in Saint Petersburg and eleven in the capital, Moscow.
(Also read: Russia rejects accusations linking the Kremlin to the death of Alexei Navalny)
In response to calls to demonstrate that circulated on the Internet, the Moscow prosecutor's office warned on Friday that “organizing or holding unauthorized rallies, convening them and participating in them is an administrative offense.”
Protests are illegal in Russia, where harsh laws apply to punish dissent, including prison sentences for criticizing power. The authorities have repressed rallies in support of Navalny with particular severity.
Navalny had survived poisoning in 2020. He had been detained since 2021 and was convicted of “extremism.”
This lawyer, who achieved notoriety as an anti-corruption activist, was the most prominent figure of an opposition that is reduced to its minimum expression by the repression that intensified after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, in February 2022. His death It was announced one month before the elections in Russia, which are expected to consolidate the president, Vladimir Putin, in power.
AFP
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