Several people were arrested while trying to pay tribute to Navalny in the center of Moscow
Moscow, February 17 (EFE).- About 15 people were arrested today while trying to pay tribute to the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny at the Wall of Pain, a monument dedicated to victims of political repression in Moscow.
According to the Sota portal, police detained people who displayed banners paying tribute to the opponent or criticizing the Kremlin’s role in his sudden death.
“Putin, Navalny’s killer,” points to a sign a young man is holding.
Furthermore, riot forces dispersed people who were preparing to lay flower bouquets and forcibly took them to an underpass.
“Have some Shame!” The people present raised slogans.
Hours earlier, OVD-Info, an organization that protects the rights of detained opponents, reported the detention of at least 110 people in various Russian cities during a crackdown on the death in prison of an opposition leader. Was informed.
More than half of the arrests (69) were made in St. Petersburg, the hometown of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Since Friday, law enforcement forces and plainclothes agents have been trying to remove all monuments erected by Navalny’s supporters, both at monuments to victims of political repression and at immediate locations.
According to local Telegram channels, it happened on the bridge opposite the Kremlin, where opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was assassinated in 2015.
According to local press, many people have paid tribute to the opposition leader the day before by laying flowers or placing candles at designated locations in their cities.
Thousands of Russians living in exile took to the streets on Saturday to protest what they view as a Kremlin-initiated assassination and called for more action in European, US and Latin American cities.
Navalny, 47, died suddenly on Friday in an Arctic prison, where he had been held since last December, according to Russian prison services.
His co-religionists, the opposition and the Russian free press and Western foreign ministries unanimously accused Putin of ordering the killing of Navalny, the Kremlin’s number one enemy for 15 years.
Navalny, who was serving nearly 30 years in prison, was transferred to an Arctic prison in December after announcing a campaign against Putin’s re-election in the March presidential elections.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov considered the allegations made by the West “unacceptable” before the results of the autopsy were released.