More Than 400 Detained In Russia For Mourning Navalny's Death

Since the passing of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's prominent opposition figure, more than 400 individuals have been apprehended across 32 cities in Russia, as reported by rights group OVD-Info.

Russians have persisted in gathering and laying flowers to commemorate Navalny's memory. I Photo: Anna Garraud Wikimedia Commons

Russians persisted in gathering and laying flowers to commemorate Navalny's memory, Alexander Marrow, Lucy Papachristou and Lidia Kelly reported for Reuters.

This represents the largest surge of arrests at political gatherings in Russia since September 2022, when over 1,300 individuals were detained during protests against the "partial mobilization" of reservists for Putin's military campaign in Ukraine.

Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, was reported to have lost consciousness and subsequently passed away on Friday following an outing at the "Polar Wolf" Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, according to the prison service.

OVD-Info, an organization focused on reporting on freedom of assembly in Russia, highlighted that the highest number of arrests took place in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where Navalny had traditionally garnered substantial support.

By 2000 GMT on Saturday (8 a.m., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024, in Manila), over 200 individuals had been detained in St. Petersburg alone.

However, Russian state news agencies, which operate under full Kremlin control, made no mention of these events.

There were no reports regarding the hundreds of individuals throughout Russia who persisted in defying authorities to lay flowers at impromptu memorials dedicated to Navalny.

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