Despite arrests, Russians come out to honor Navalny’s memory

(CNN) — Alexei Navalny’s death was greeted with great sadness around the world, and even in Russia – where even the slightest act of political dissent carries great risk – his memory has been honored.

Russians have suddenly turned out for memorial events, and hundreds of people have been reported detained in the biggest wave of arrests at political rallies in the country in two years.

Contrary to public opinion, Russian state media have largely ignored his death.

Navalny, 47, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died on Friday after feeling unwell and fainting during a walk in the prison, according to the Russian prison service. The cause of his death is unclear and his team has accused the authorities of lying to delay the process of returning his body to the family.

The incident sparked protests around the world, with many people gathering outside Russian embassies in European capitals such as Berlin and Paris, holding banners reading “Putin is a killer” and “Putin to the Hague”.

In Russia, protests require authorization from government officials. The Moscow prosecutor’s office warned that any demonstrations in the capital over Navalny’s death are prohibited.

Still, crowds turned out for vigils and rallies. At events across the country, people paid their respects to Navalny by laying flowers and carrying signs, as seen on social media and news agency videos.

But even this, apparently, seemed too much to the authorities, who recorded a video showing how police put some of the attendees into police vans.

In Moscow, people brought flowers to the Wall of Sorrow, a memorial to the victims of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a video from the independent SOTA channel on Telegram showed.

Independent news outlet Mozem Obyasnit (MO) reported that about 50 people gathered at the Wall of Pain on Saturday for a rally in memory of Navalny before police began evicting people from the monument.

Police in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on Friday detained activists mourning Navalny’s death and surrounded a monument dedicated to victims of political repression, SOTA reported.

More than 366 people have been detained since Navalny’s death, according to OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights group that tracks repression in Russia.

According to the organization, more than 200 arrests were made in St. Petersburg alone. In total arrests were made in 32 different cities, including Murmansk, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Nizhny Novgorod. OVD-Info reported that some detainees were released, although it was unclear how many were released.

Meanwhile, hundreds of flowers and candles collected in Moscow were removed in black bags overnight Saturday, Reuters reports.

The wave of arrests is the largest in Russia since September 2022, when demonstrations broke out against Putin’s “partial mobilization” for war in Ukraine.

A 36-year-old man holding a carnation at the Solovetsky Stone, a memorial in Moscow’s Lubyanka Square, spoke to Reuters from the shelter of an underpass.

“Navalny’s death is terrible: hopes are dashed,” he said.

“Navalny was a very serious person, a brave person, and now he is no longer with us. He told the truth, and it was very dangerous because some people did not like the truth.”

Reactions from other Muscovites were mixed. Moscow resident Alexander told Reuters he thought Navalny’s death was “expected”.

“Reports say they kept her in bad conditions that were not fit for living,” he said.

Navalny was jailed in 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he received treatment after being poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Upon arrival, Navalny was immediately detained on charges he rejected as politically motivated.

Navalny has since been imprisoned, and concerns for his well-being have intensified following his transfer to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. He spent his final weeks in a Siberian prison, where he said he slept under newspaper to keep warm.

Another Moscow resident, Mikhail, said he believed the sooner action was taken against Russia’s “enemies, the better”.

There have been reports that prisoners have been beaten.

A young man detained after laying flowers in Surgut, in western Siberia, told the group’s lawyers that he was beaten at a police station, OVD-Info reported.

According to OVD-Information, he also claimed that officers pointed a gun at his head, forced him to lie on the ground with his arms extended upward and demanded him to confess why he had brought the flowers. .

The MO said there were two cases of beatings during arrests – in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

CNN has not independently confirmed these reports. CNN has contacted officials in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Surgut for comment.

silence of government media

Navalny’s death made headlines around the world.

However, there has been little news of Navalny’s death on some of Russia’s state media channels.

The Russia-24 news channel did not provide any on-air reports in the hours following the announcement of his death, nor was it mentioned on the channel’s news ticker. Instead, he reported on the situation in the border city of Belgorod, where deadly Ukrainian shelling has occurred, and on Putin’s visit to the city of Chelyabinsk.

Russia’s Channel One first reported Navalny’s death just before 3 p.m. local time, reading a statement from Russian prison services that took up 25 seconds of broadcast time. No images of Navalny were broadcast.

A commentator on the Soloviev Live propaganda channel claimed that Navalny’s death was staged by the CIA and that the West would use it as a weapon against Russia.

The claim comes after Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the West’s reaction to Navalny’s death.

In a statement on social media, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the reaction of NATO leaders – several of whom pointed the finger directly at Putin – “reveals his true colors.”

“There has been no forensic investigation yet, but the West’s conclusions are already ready.”

No media outlets reported relevant information about Navalny, who has posed one of the most serious threats to Putin during his tenure, organizing anti-government street protests and condemning alleged corruption in the Kremlin and Russian business. Used my blog and social media for this. , The Kremlin denies the allegations.

And Putin himself has not commented yet, although this is not surprising. The Russian leader has consistently refused to name the man who has become one of his highest-profile opponents.

CNN’s Eve Brennan and Ulyana Pavlova contributed to this report.