Hundreds of people mourning the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were detained across the country, according to a group that monitors political arrests.
Russia’s prison service announced the death of Navalny on Friday at an arctic prison colony, claiming the Putin critic “felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness.”
“The facility’s medical workers immediately arrived at the scene and an emergency medical team was called in. All necessary resuscitation measures have been carried out, but they did not yield positive results. Emergency medics confirmed the death of the convict,” the statement added.
According to OVD-Info, a Russian-based human rights group, there have been 389 detentions in 39 cities across the country, with at least 30 ordered to spend up to 15 days in prison, The New York Times reports.
Until Mr. Navalny’s death at the age of 47, many observers had believed that the Kremlin would limit repression until after presidential elections in mid-March, when President Vladimir V. Putin is all but assured a fifth term. But many now fear that the arrests portend a broader crackdown. [...]
In Surgut, a city in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region in Western Siberia, Bakyt Karypbaev said he was beaten during a five-hour detention after laying flowers at an impromptu memorial for Mr. Navalny. He told The New York Times in a phone interview that officers hit him on his head with their palms, put a gun to his head and forced him to lie on the floor with his arms outstretched. [...]
Mr. Karypbaev was released after signing a warning acknowledging that he would face a criminal inquiry if he did something similar again. He said he was now taking sedatives to try and calm down.
In Moscow, two men were detained on a bridge near the Kremlin where since 2015 activists have maintained a memorial to Mr. Nemtsov, the opposition politician, who was assassinated that year. According to OVD-Info, the two men, Boris Kazadayev and Ilya Povyshev, were questioned by the police, who detained them after finding a photograph of Mr. Navalny in a backpack belonging to one of the men.
And in St. Petersburg, a bishop who was planning to perform a public prayer for the dead in Mr. Navalny’s honor was detained as he left his house on Saturday, then hospitalized after suffering a stroke in police custody. The bishop, Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko, planned to conduct the prayer near the city’s Solovetsky Stone, a monument similar to the one in Moscow. (The New York Times)
Participants at a memorial rally for Navalny in St Petersburg 🇷🇺 are all being detained. pic.twitter.com/534mUke2A9
— Jason Jay Smart (@officejjsmart) February 16, 2024
In Moscow 🇷🇺, everyone who tries to lay flowers at the Solovetsky Stone, in memory of Navalny, is detained. pic.twitter.com/Z8FAxBmIIZ
— Jason Jay Smart (@officejjsmart) February 16, 2024
People in St. Petersburg replaced flowers at a memorial for Alexei Navalny seconds after the old ones were removed. More than 400 people have been detained at events across 32 Russian cities since Navalny's death, according to rights group OVD-Info pic.twitter.com/AT8aH2jden
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 18, 2024
President Biden on Friday said Navalny’s death “was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
“But make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. Putin is responsible. What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled,” he added.