At least 340 people were detained at events held in Russia between this Friday (16) and Saturday (17) in memory of Alexei Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's biggest internal political opponents. The information comes from the human rights NGO OVD-Info.
The number represents the largest wave of arrests at political events in Russia since September 2022, when more than 1,300 people were arrested in acts against a “partial mobilization” of reservists for the military campaign in Ukraine.
Navalny was 47 years old and a lawyer. He lost consciousness and died on Friday after a walk in the penal colony known as “Polar Wolf”, where he was serving a sentence of more than 30 years, according to authorities.
OVD-Info, which produces reports on freedom of assembly in Russia, reported that at least 340 people were detained in spontaneous demonstrations and vigils in 32 cities across the country as of 11:09 am this Saturday, Brasília time.
Also according to OVD-Info, the police would have detained at least 74 people in Saint Petersburg and at least 49 in Moscow, the two largest cities in Russia, where most of Navalny's urban supporters were concentrated.
Footage filmed by Reuters on Saturday in St. Petersburg showed dozens of people gathered near a monument to victims of the crackdown.
Protesters placed flowers and candles, while some sang hymns and others hugged each other, shedding tears.
“I felt very sorry for him and for our country,” said an 83-year-old woman who participated in the vigil and did not want to reveal her name. “I am scared.”
A Reuters reporter present at the scene said that around 30 people were arrested shortly after the singing ended.
The group also reported individual arrests in smaller cities such as Belgorod, on the border with Ukraine, where seven people were killed after a Ukrainian missile attack on Thursday, and in Vorkuta, a mining district in the Arctic. where a center of forced labor camps – the gulags – from the Stalin era was once located.
Images recorded by Reuters in Moscow show security officers grouping people on the ground, under the snow, near a place where supporters left flowers and messages in honor of the late opposition leader.
“In each police station there may be more detainees than on the published lists,” OVD-Info said. “We only publish the names of people of whom we are aware and whose names may be published.”
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the count.
The hundreds of flowers and candles deposited in Moscow on Friday to honor Navalny's memory were, for the most part, removed overnight into black bags. During the tributes, some Russians spoke of “despair” and “apathy” after Navalny's death.
Source: CNN Brasil
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