(Moscow) Dozens of Russians continued to lay flowers on a monument in Moscow on Monday to honor the memory of opponent Alexeï Navalny, who died in prison, despite the hundreds of arrests which took place in the preceding days.
Nearly 400 people have been arrested across Russia and at least 150 have been sentenced to short prison terms in the past three days for actions in memory of the charismatic opponent and anti-corruption activist, according to rights organizations.
On Monday, however, the police allowed Muscovites, some of whom were crying, to march one by one without violence to lay flowers on a monument dedicated to the memory of the victims of Soviet political repression, opposite Lubyanka, headquarters of the Soviet KGB and then FSB. Russian.
Several ambassadors, including the Frenchman Pierre Lévy, also visited the monument.
“Alexeï Navalny is alive in our memory, he is a ray of light in our life. We will honor his memory and continue his work,” Larissa, a 54-year-old paramedic, told AFP in a solemn tone.
Alexandra, 21, was afraid to come to the monument after seeing videos of the previous days’ arrests, but did so anyway. “The first two days, I cried non-stop. I’m angry,” she says.
“Even though he was in prison, even though he was taken beyond the Arctic Circle, he was still alive. It’s as if there was still hope,” continues the young woman who has attended rallies organized by Mr. Navalny in the past. “He’s the kind of person you want to follow, and people have followed him. »
“The hope of millions of Russians”
Konstantin, aged 16, says he was interested in politics from the age of 11, when he discovered Alexeï Navalny. “This is the person whose activities I have followed for all these years. And the news of his death, or rather his assassination on February 16, of course, shocked me,” he explains.
“He showed me that politics is not something boring that you only find in the newspapers. He was a rock star of Russian politics,” continues Konstantin, who emphasizes that the opponent was “able to interest different segments of the Russian population.”
Known for his anti-corruption investigations and his fierce fight against Vladimir Putin and his “party of thieves and crooks”, Alexeï Navalny died Friday in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence.
The circumstances of the death at the age of 47 of the opponent, victim of a poisoning which he narrowly survived in 2020 and of particularly harsh detention conditions, remain obscure and the authorities have so far refused to hand over his remains to his loved ones.
The charismatic lawyer was particularly popular with young people in big cities, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In any case, he was the leading figure of a Russian opposition otherwise undermined by years of repression.
“For millions of Russians, he was still a kind of hope, and we don’t know who could be the next hope after him,” emphasizes Elizaveta, 47, who came to the Moscow memorial wearing glasses in a trembling voice. black and nervously smoking a cigarette.