At least 200 people have been detained during demonstrations in Russia in memory of the late Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's main opponent, according to the human rights group OVD-Info. According to prison authorities, Navalny, 47, fell unconscious and died on Friday, February 16, during a walk in an Arctic prison, where he was serving several sentences totaling nearly three decades.
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At least 212 people have been detained in different Russian cities during actions in memory and rejection of the death in prison of the opposition leader Alexei Navalnyreported this Saturday, February 17 OVD-Info, organization that protects the rights of detained dissidents.
More than half of the arrests took place in St. Petersburghometown of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Een dag na het overlijden van Navalny is het opnieuw onrustig in Moskou. De politie heeft volgens de onafhankelijke nieuwssite SOTA zeker zes herdenkers aangehouden bij de Muur van Verdriet, een reusachtige bronzen muur die staat voor de slachtoffers van massamoordenaar Stalin. pic.twitter.com/fsJVzW6rVF
— Dénis van Vliet (@denisvanvliet) February 17, 2024
Is about the largest wave of arrests in this type of act since September 2022when more than 1,300 people were arrested in demonstrations against a “partial mobilization” of reservists for the military campaign in Ukraine.
Navalny, 47, died suddenly on Friday, February 16, in an Arctic prison where he had been since last December, according to Russian penitentiary services.
The NGO OVD-Info indicated that around 2:30 p.m. local time this Saturday (11:27 GMT) at least 212 people in 21 cities throughout Russia had been detained in demonstrations and spontaneous vigils for the death of the opponent.
According to data from this organization, the Police detained more than half in Saint Petersburg and at least 39 in Moscow, the two largest cities in the country, where Navalny's supporters had gathered.
The group also reported individual arrests in smaller cities across Russia.from the border town of Belgorod, where seven people were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Thursday, to Vorkuta, an Arctic mining outpost that was once the center of Stalin-era forced labor camps.
Footage filmed by Reuters in Moscow showed law enforcement taking people to the ground in the snow, near a spot where mourners had left flowers and messages in support of the dead opposition leader.
“In each Police department there may be more detainees than on the published lists,” notes OVD-Info. “We publish only the names of those people about whom we have reliable knowledge and whose names we can publish.”
The hundreds of flowers and candles placed in Moscow on Friday to honor the opposition leader's memory were mostly removed overnight in black bags. Russians who paid their respects spoke of their despair and apathy following Navalny's death.
Thousands of Russians in exile also took to the streets to protest what they consider a murder commissioned by the Kremlin and called for more actions in European, American and Latin American cities on Saturday.
The opposition and several Western governments, including the United States and members of the European Union, accuse Putin of ordering the murder of Navalny, the Kremlin's number one opponent for 15 years.
Navalny, who was serving a sentence of almost 30 years in prison, was transferred to an Arctic prison in December after announcing a campaign against Putin's re-election in the March presidential elections.
Presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov considered the accusations made by the West “unacceptable” before the results of the autopsy are known.
With Reuters and EFE
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