Tributes To Alexei Navalny Removed From Russian Cities While Police Watched

Videos on Russian social media reveal that overnight while Police watched, groups of unidentified persons removed floral tributes to President Vladimir Putin’s toughest opponent; Alexei Navalny, who died on Friday in a Russian jail camp.

According to OVD-Info, a group that keeps track of political persecution in Russia, more than 100 people were arrested in eight different Russian towns after they came to leave flowers in Mr. Navalny’s memory.

Police detained multiple people in Surgut, another Siberian city, and barred entry to a memorial in Novosibirsk on Saturday, according to OVD-Info.

Social media users posted a video from Novosibirsk showing people placing red flowers upright in the snow while police, wearing ticker tape to block the entrance to the memorial, watched on.

A video captured a huge group of people in Moscow removing flowers overnight from a memorial close to the Federal Security Service headquarters while police watched.

However, more blossoms had shown up by morning.

Less than a month before an election that will extend Mr. Putin’s term in office by six more years, word of Mr. Navalny’s passing breaks.

Former British ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London; Nigel Gould-Davies said it shows “that the sentence in Russia now for opposition is not merely imprisonment, but death.”

There is still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding Mr. Navalny’s death.

According to the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, Mr. Navalny became ill on Friday following a stroll and passed out at the prison colony in the town of Kharp, which is located 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow in the Yamalo-Nenets region.

He was not able to be revived when an ambulance arrived, and the cause of death is still “being established,” according to the report.

Since returning to Moscow in January 2021 to face imminent arrest following his recovery in Germany from nerve agent poisoning, which he attributed to the Kremlin, Mr. Navalny has been detained.

He was later found guilty three times, claiming that the convictions were politically motivated, and he was given a 19-year sentence for extremism.

Mr. Navalny stated following the most recent ruling that he was aware he was “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of this regime.”

Soon after it was announced that Mr. Navalny had passed away, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, stunned everyone by showing up at a security conference in Germany that was attended by numerous dignitaries.

She admitted that she had pondered about calling it quits, but then she remembered what Alexei would do in her stead. And I’m sure he would be here,” she continued, expressing doubt about her ability to accept the information from reputable Russian sources.

But if this is true, I want Putin and everyone around Putin, Putin’s friends, and his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family, and to my husband. And this day will come very soon,” Ms Navalnaya said.

According to US President Joe Biden, “there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something Putin and his thugs did,” even though Washington is unsure of the precise circumstances.

Despite knowing that he would be arrested or assassinated, Mr. Navalny returned home “because he believed so deeply in his country, in Russia,” even though he “could have lived safely in exile.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany stated that Mr. Navalny “has probably now paid for this courage with his life.”

May his soul rest in peace, Amen.

Be careful how you use your authority and influence, be wise, and treat others with respect.

Chychy Jonas