Floral tributes to Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe who died on Friday in a Russian penal colony, were removed overnight by groups of unidentified people while police watched, videos on Russian social media show.
More than 100 people were detained in eight cities across Russia after they came to lay flowers in memory of Navalny, said OVD-Info, a group that monitors political repression in Russia.
Yesterday, 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.
Photo: AP
Video footage 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.
Images on social media showed dozens lining up on Friday to place flowers at monuments to victims of political repression in the cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
“I’m afraid. Afraid of what will happen next. Afraid of what the state can do with its citizens,” 18-year-old student Mark said in the capital.
Photo: AP
In Moscow, flowers were removed overnight from a memorial near the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service by a large group while police looked on, a video showed, but by morning more flowers had appeared.
Navalny supporters also turned out across Europe and in the US to pay tribute to the man widely acknowledged as Russia’s main opposition figure, even when he was behind bars.
Navalny’s death was announced earlier in the day by officials in the Arctic prison where he was serving a 19-year sentence.
Photo: EPA-EFE
From New York and Washington to cities in western Europe and capitals of former Soviet bloc states, mourners showed their respect for Navalny, a charismatic lawyer who rallied domestic opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Many were quick to blame Navalny’s death on Putin.
“Putin murderer. Putin to the Hague,” shouted a crowd massed in front of Russia’s embassy in Berlin.
Most of the several hundred people gathered there were Russian speakers, many holding up posters of members of the opposition or slogans criticizing Putin.
“It’s a hard hit emotionally,” said Evgueni Syrokin, who coordinates the “FreeNavalny” movement in Germany.
“It pushes us to continue to work, to struggle against Putin,” added the 43-year-old, bearing a black and white photograph of the opposition figure.
Behind him, flowers, candles and photos of Navalny were laid on the pavement.
In Warsaw, about 100 people demonstrated outside the Russian embassy. Most were young and visibly upset.
One 29-year-old Russian who only wanted to be identified as Denislan said he saw Navalny as a symbol of Russian civil society.
“I am here because Russia should and can become a democratic country,” he said.
Candles and flowers were spread out in front of the gates of the well-guarded embassy.
In Switzerland, about 300 people attended an impromptu gathering outside Zurich’s train station, while more than 100 gathered in front of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, carrying portraits of Navalny and white flowers.
The shock announcement of Navalny’s death came a day before official campaigning starts in what critics say will be a stage-managed presidential election next month that will extend 71-year-old Putin’s two-decade hold on power.
In the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, crowds gathered at a memorial to victims of the Soviet occupation.
“Even in prison he managed to find the force and give it to those who resist,” said one Russian resident of Vilnius who did not want to give his name.
Hundreds also gathered in the capitals of Armenia, France, Georgia and the Netherlands.
Across the ocean in New York, people laid flowers outside Russia’s consulate and hung photos of Navalny on the gates. Several hundred people, some bearing posters and candles, also gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Washington, chanting “We are Navalny” and “Shame on Putin.”
The words “Putin murderer” were projected on to the embassy building.
US President Joe Biden on Friday blamed Putin for the death of Navalny, describing the Kremlin critic as a “powerful voice for the truth.”
Saying he was “outraged” by the news, Biden said he did not yet know exactly what had happened to Navalny, but that it was the fault of Putin and his “thugs.”
“Make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin is responsible,” Biden said in televised remarks from the White House.
“What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled.”
Biden said he was “looking at options” on how to respond, but did not elaborate.
Additional reporting by Reuters
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS