Russia arrested At least 400 people across the country protested the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was imprisoned in a Russian penal colony when he died suddenly on Friday. Among those arrested is a priest, Father Grigory Mikhnov-Vyatenko, who planned to lead a memorial service in St. Petersburg in Navalny's honor.
Human rights group OVD-Info said that by Saturday night, police had arrested at least 401 people across the country. More than 200 of these arrests took place in St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city. Mikhnov-Vaitenko, the priest who planned a memorial service for Navalny, was charged with organizing the rally. He was placed in a holding cell, but was taken to a hospital due to a stroke, according to OVD-Info.
“He didn't die, he was killed,” a woman who laid flowers at Russia's Wall of Sorrows, a memorial to those politically persecuted during Stalin's rule, he said The New York Times on Navalny's death.
“They're trying to scare us so much that it's not possible to live,” Alla's friend Elena said of the Russian government. Both declined to give their last name to Times because they could face consequences for speaking out.
St. Petersburg courts ordered 43 people detained on Friday to serve between one and six days in prison. Nine others were fined, according to court officials. the Associated Press reported. Six people arrested in Moscow were sentenced to 15 days in prison, OVD-Info reported.
Russia's prison service announced Navalny's death on Friday, saying he was found dead in his cell at a remote prison in western Siberia. He was 47. Navalny was serving time on charges of embezzlement and contempt of court. The human rights organization Amnesty International called the charges and the trial a “scam.”
“Alexei Navalny was detained on politically motivated charges and should not have been imprisoned in the first place,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, during the closed-door trial.
The Russian government said Navalny was suffering from “sudden death syndrome,” but Navalny's team claimed he was “assassinated.” They also accused the Russian government of deliberately delaying the release of his body.
“They are leading us in circles and covering their tracks,” Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said Saturday, according to the AP.
“Everything there is covered with cameras in the colony. Every step he took was filmed from all angles over the years. Every employee has a video recorder,” Navalny's close ally Leonid Volkov said Sunday, according to the AP. “In two days, not a single video has been leaked or published. There is no room for uncertainty here.”
Russian protest and performance collective Pussy Riot held a demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Berlin in response to Navalny's death. “We came up with one simple word – 'KILLERS'. He didn't just die. He was murdered,” the group's creator, Nadya Tolokonnikova, said of Navalny's death in a statement on Sunday. “What we need to know about Putin is that he is much more fragile than he appears. He is afraid of his opponents.”
After his death, Navalny's wife of 23 years, Yulia Navalny, addressed a security conference in Munich. “I want Putin, those around him, Putin's friends and his government to know that they will be held accountable for what they have done to our country, my family and my husband – and that day will come very soon.” , he said.
Putin is up for re-election in a month and is expected to win another six years in power.
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