At least 212 people had been detained at protests in Russia on Friday and Saturday in memory of Alexei Navalny, Russian president Vladimir Putinâs most formidable domestic opponent, who died on Friday, according to rights group OVD-Info.
It would be the largest wave of arrests at political events in Russia since September 2022, when more than 1,300 were arrested at demonstrations against a âpartial mobilisationâ of reservists for the military campaign in Ukraine.
Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk at the Polar Wolf Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 30-year sentence, authorities said.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnyâs mother was told on Saturday that he had been struck down by âsudden death syndromeâ, his team said.
She was also told that his body would not be handed over to the family until an investigation was completed. It was not clear where his body was.
Lyudmila Navalnaya was given an official death notice stating the time of death as 2:17 pm local time on 16 February 16th, Navalnyâs spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh said.
âWhen Alexeiâs lawyer and mother arrived at the colony this morning, they were told that the cause of Navalnyâs death was sudden death syndrome,â Ivan Zhdanov, who directs Navalnyâs Anti-Corruption Foundation, said.
âSudden death syndromeâ is a general term for various cardiac syndromes that cause sudden cardiac arrest and death.
His body was taken to Salekhard, the town near the prison complex, by Russian investigators, who were conducting âresearchâ, Ms Yarmysh said.
VD-Info, which reports on freedom of assembly in Russia, said at least 212 people in 21 cities across Russia had been detained at spontaneous rallies and vigils as of 11.27am Irish time on Saturday.
OVD-Info said that police had detained at least 109 people in St Petersburg and at least 39 in Moscow, the countryâs two largest cities, where Navalnyâs mostly educated and urban supporters had been concentrated.
The group also reported individual arrests in smaller cities across Russia, from the border city of Belgorod, where seven were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on Thursday, to Vorkuta, an Arctic mining outpost once a centre of the Stalin-era gulag labour camps.
Footage filmed by Reuters in Moscow showed law enforcement bundling people to the ground in the snow, close to a spot where mourners had left flowers and messages in support of the dead opposition leader.
âIn each police department there may be more detainees than in the published lists,â OVD-Info said. âWe publish only the names of those people about whom we have reliable knowledge and whose names we can publish.â
Reuters could not immediately verify the count.
The hundreds of flowers and candles laid in Moscow on Friday to honour Navalnyâs memory were mostly taken away overnight in black bags. Russians paying their respects spoke of their despair and apathy after Navalnyâs death.
The IK-3 penal colony in Kharp is situated in the Arctic Circle, some 1,900km northeast of Moscow and a one-hour drive from Salekhard, the administrative capital of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
Meanwhile, G7 foreign ministers observed a minuteâs silence at the start of their meeting in Munich on Saturday to pay their respects to Navalny, the G7â²s Italian presidency said.
âFor his ideas and for his battle for freedom and against corruption in Russia, Navalny was de facto led to death,â Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said as he opened a gathering of the major democracies on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
âRussia must shed light on his death and stop its unacceptable repression of political dissent,â Mr Tajani said, according to his ministry.
British foreign secretary David Cameron said on Saturday there will be âconsequencesâ for the death of Navalny, as western capitals pinned the blame on Mr Putin.
In London, the UK foreign office summoned diplomats at the Russian embassy and called for Navalnyâs death to be âinvestigated fully and transparentlyâ.
Britain has joined other western countries in condemning the Kremlin after Russiaâs federal prison service said in a statement that the 47-year-old politician and anti-corruption campaigner had died.
US president Joe Biden said Washington does not know exactly what happened, âbut there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something Putin and his thugs didâ.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who attended the same conference in Munich on Saturday alongside other world leaders, told those attending: âPutin kills whoever he wants.
âAfter the murder of Alexei Navalny, itâs absurd to perceive Putin as a supposedly legitimate head of a Russian state and he is a thug who maintains power through corruption and violence.â â Reuters/PA
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