At least 110 people were arrested in several Russian cities during the tribute to the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, who died yesterday under suspicious circumstances in the IK-3 prison in Siberia, triggering a new political crisis in the government of Vladimir Putin, which the West accuses him of being behind the death of his main opponent.
The arrests, many of them just for placing flowers in squares to greet him, mostly took place in St. Petersburg, Putin’s hometown, according to OVD-Info, an organization that guarantees the rights of detained opponents.
There were also prisoners in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnodar and other cities in the European part of Russia and Siberia.
Furthermore, the Police collected the personal data of all participants in these events, including the journalists who came to cover them.
Russian police arrest a man who wanted to lay flowers at Navalny’s memorial. AP photo.
Arrested in the marches in tribute to Navalny. (AP Photo)Since Friday, law enforcement agencies and domestic agents have been trying to remove all memorials created by Navalny’s supporters, both at monuments to victims of political repression and at improvised places.
This happened, according to local Telegram channels, in front of the Kremlin, on the bridge where opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was assassinated in 2015.
According to the local press, already the day before numerous people paid homage to the opposition leader by laying flowers or placing candles in designated places in their cities.
Thousands of exiled Russians took to the streets to protest what they see as a Kremlin-commissioned killing and called for further action in European, American and Latin American cities on Saturday.
Navalny, 47, died suddenly on Friday in the Arctic prison where he had been held since last December, according to Russia’s prison services.
The opposition, the independent Russian press and Western foreign ministries accused Putin in unison of ordering the assassination of Navalny, the Kremlin’s number one enemy for 15 years.
There have been protests around the world accusing Putin of murder. In the image, the mobilization in front of the Russian consulate in Poland. PhotoReuters.Navalny, who was serving a nearly 30-year prison sentence, was transferred to an Arctic prison in December after announcing a campaign against Putin’s re-election in March’s presidential election.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov considered the accusations made by the West “unacceptable” before the results of the autopsy were known.
“Putin killed him,” Navalny’s team said after his mother’s visit to prison
A woman wearing a mask is believed to be Alexei Navalny’s mother after leaving the prison where Putin’s opponent died. PhotoReuters.The mother of the late Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny today visited the Arctic prison where her son died suddenly on Friday amid murder charges against the Kremlin.
As reported by Radio Liberty, Lyudmila Navalnaya flew this morning from Moscow to the city of Salekhard in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
Subsequently, the mother drove to the city of Jarp, where the IK-3 prison is located, to which her son was transferred last December.
Liudmila Naválnaya, who assured that she did not want to receive condolences, met her opponent in the same place on February 12. “He was healthy and happy to be alive,” the politician’s mother wrote on Facebook on Friday.
“Putin killed him”denounced the team of the deceased Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalni, after his mother’s visit to receive the death certificate from the prison authorities.
Source: EFE
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.