Alexei Navalny, who was one of the most prominent Russian opposition leader and critic of President Vladimir Putin, died on Friday in an arctic prison camp, where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism.
A large number of people, who were grieving his death laid flowers and candles at various locations across Russia to honor his memory and protest his treatment. However, many of these tributes were quickly removed by unknown groups, while the police watched or even assisted them.
According to OVD-Info, an independent group that monitors political repression in Russia, more than 400 people were detained in eight cities for trying to pay their respects to Navalny.
In Moscow, a large group of people wearing masks and gloves cleared the flowers and candles from a memorial near the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor agency of the KGB, where Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent last year. The police did not intervene.
In other cities, such as St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg, similar scenes were reported, as the authorities tried to erase any signs of Navalny’s presence and influence.
Despite the crackdown, most of Alexei Navalny’s supporters managed to restore the tributes or find new ways to express their solidarity, such as projecting his image on buildings or wearing his signature red scarves.
