Alexeï Navalny’s team requested on Saturday February 17 that the remains of the Russian opponent be handed over to them “immediately”. “An employee of the colony [pénitentiaire] said that Alexei Navalny’s body was in Salekhard”a town in the Russian Arctic region where his prison was located, and had been swept away by “investigators” For “perform ‘research'”explained the opponent’s spokesperson, Kira Iarmich. “We demand that the body of Alexei Navalny be immediately returned to his family”she added, specifying that the prison authorities had given her mother, Lioudmila Navalanïa, a document “official” confirming the death. Follow our live stream.
Around a hundred people arrested in Russia during rallies in tribute to the opponent. At least “101 people were arrested in ten cities” during several rallies in Russia in tribute to the opponent Alexeï Navalny, who died in prison on Friday, the specialized NGO OVD-Info announced on Saturday February 17. Around sixty of them were arrested and detained in Saint Petersburg and around fifteen in Nizhni Novgorod. In Moscow, around fifteen people were arrested at midday on Saturday, reports the independent Russian media Sota, present on the scene.
Beijing refuses to comment on an “internal Russian matter”. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not wish to react to the death of Alexeï Navalny. “This is an internal Russian matter. I will not comment on it”said a ministry spokesperson on Saturday, in response to a question from an AFP journalist.
Gatherings from Europe to the United States. Protesters gathered Friday evening in Warsaw, Poland, chanting “Putin, assassin” And “Never forget, never forgive”. There were also several hundred of them in Berlin (Germany) in front of the Russian embassy shouting “Putin murderer! Putin in The Hague!”, or in front of the permanent representation of Moscow in Washington (United States).
Amnesty International calls for an investigation. The general secretary of the NGO, Agnès Callamard, calls on franceinfo for an independent investigation, carried out by “the United Nations”to establish “the direct causes of this death”. She hopes that it will “confirm the place of international law, of the rights of all those who, as [Alexeï Navalny], are activists against corruption”.