offering flowers to alexei navalnyPresident Vladimir Putin's deadliest enemy, who died in a Russian penal colony on Friday, was eliminated overnight by an unidentified group while police looked on, videos on Russian social media reveal. Ta.
More than 100 people were detained in eight cities across Russia after coming to lay flowers in Navalny's memory, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political repression in Russia. On Saturday, police blocked access to a monument in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and detained several people there and in another Siberian city, Surgut, OVD-Info said.
Videos shared on social media from Novosibirsk showed people erecting red flowers in the snow and stabbing them under the watchful eye of police, who blocked access to the monument with ticker tape.
In Moscow, video showed flowers being removed by a large group from a monument near the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service overnight as police looked on. But in the morning, more flowers bloomed.
News of Navalny's death came a month before the election. President Putin will be given six more years in power.
Nigel Gould-Davies, former British ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow on Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said: “This shows that the current sentences for dissidents in Russia are not just prison terms, but the death penalty.'' “
The circumstances of Navalny's death remain largely unknown.
Russian federal prisons said Navalny felt unwell after a walk on Friday and passed out in the penal colony of Harb town in the Yamalo-Nenets region, about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. An ambulance arrived, but they were unable to revive him. The cause of his death is still “under investigation.”
A man places flowers at the monument to pay his last respects to Alexei Navalny. This monument is a large rock on the Solovetsky Islands, where the first camp of the Gulag Political Prison System was established and where the historic Federal Security Service (FSB, successor to the Soviet KGB) was established. It is. Buildings in the background, Moscow, Russia, Saturday morning, February 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlyanichenko)
Mr Navalny is He has been imprisoned since January 2021., after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning, when he returned to Moscow to ensure his arrest, he blamed the Kremlin. He was subsequently convicted three times, each time as politically motivated, and sentenced to 19 years in prison for extremism.
After his previous sentencing, Navalny said he “understands that he is serving a life sentence,” adding: “It will be measured by the length of my life or the longevity of this regime.” Stated.
Hours after Navalny's death was announced, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, made a dramatic appearance at a speech. Security Council in Germany A place where many leaders gathered.
She said she had considered canceling. She is unsure whether to believe the news from official Russian sources: “But I wondered what Alexei would do for me. And he would definitely be here.” No, she added.
“But if this is true, I would like to thank President Putin and those around him, his friends, his government for what they have done to our country, my family, and my husband. We want them to know that they will take responsibility for their actions. And that day will come soon,” Navalnaya said.
US President Joe Biden said Washington does not know exactly what happened, “but there is no doubt that Mr. Navalny's death was the result of the actions of President Putin and his thugs.'' No,” he said.
Navalny “could have lived safely in exile,” but he returned home knowing he could be imprisoned or killed “because he believed deeply in his homeland, Russia.”
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Navalny had “perhaps now paid for this courage with his life.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Putin had been informed of Navalny's death. Kira Yarmis, the opposition leader's spokesperson, said on X (formerly Twitter) that the team had not yet received confirmation.
