More than a hundred people have been detained throughout Russia during and after the funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was buried on Friday in the Russian capital amid strict security measures. The information provided this Saturday by the organization OVD-Info, which protects the rights of detainees, maintains that most of the captures occurred in Siberia.
In Moscow, 14 people were arrested, while in the capital of the Urals, Yekaterinburg, considered the most liberal city in the country, a dozen were arrested. However, in the Siberian cities of Novosibirsk and Omsk, up to 35 people were sent to different police stations. In other parts of Russia – a country where it is prohibited to congregate or demonstrate without the permission of the authorities – arrests also occur.
The funerals in Moscow passed without incident, both around the Mariino church, where the funeral chapel was installed, and in the Borisovo cemetery, where the opposition leader was buried. However, chants were heard against Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, as well as against the invasion of Ukraine, making the event the largest display of dissent since Moscow launched the attack against its neighbor.
The crime of laying flowers
According to OVD-Info, most of the arrests were made against people who left flowers at monuments against Soviet repression, which have become symbols for opponents of the regime. Boris Nadezhdin, a politician who criticizes the war in Ukraine and whose candidacy for the presidency was denied by the authorities, told the Spanish agency EFE that Navalni has “millions” of sympathizers and called on Russians to lose their fear.
The Russian authorities have not reported the causes of death of Navalni, who was 47 years old and one day before his regretful death he had appeared electronically before a court and was even seen making jokes. His team affirms that a document delivered to the widow, Liudmila Navalnaya, states that the process occurred due to natural causes, but neither the opposition nor the West believe that version and hold Putin directly responsible for what happened.
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