third day of meditation at the grave of the Russian opponent

The police presence has been reduced compared to recent days.

Alexei Navalny’s grave in Moscow is buried under flowers. The Russians continued, on Sunday March 3, to pay tribute to the main critic of the Kremlin and to reflect. Under a beautiful winter sun, the queue to get to the Borissovo cemetery in the south-east of the Russian capital stretches for several hundred meters.

Alone or in small groups, Russians continued at the beginning of the afternoon to flock to the grave where Alexeï Navalny was buried on Friday, now largely covered with flowers and wreaths, noted an AFP journalist. Some place roses on the imposing pile or next to the large orange cross which adorns the grave, others prefer to observe the place in silence. The police presence has also been reduced compared to recent days.

In addition to the “grief”of the “pain” or the “rage”many Muscovites also tell AFP their desire to“express their love” for the former opponent who died two weeks ago in prison in these troubled circumstances, a death that they sometimes describe as “personal tragedy” or “shame”despite the repression of Kremlin critics.

Tributes two weeks before the Russian presidential election

Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic in recent years, died at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism”. His family, those close to him and many Western leaders have accused the master of the Kremlin of being “responsible” of his “murder”which the Kremlin vigorously rejects.

These numerous tributes come two weeks before the presidential election (March 15-17) which Vladimir Putin should unsurprisingly win, no anti-Kremlin candidate having been authorized to participate. If elected, the current Russian president would remain in power at least until 2030, three decades after his arrival in the Kremlin on the embers of the second war in Chechnya to replace Boris Yeltsin, then weakened by illness.