MOSCOW: A year after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died behind bars, his supporters held memorial events on Sunday (Feb 16), with hundreds risking reprisals by visiting his grave in Moscow.
Throughout the morning, people braved glacial temperatures to file past Navalny’s grave in Moscow’s Borisovskoye cemetery, defying warnings that authorities would be watching them.
Meanwhile, world leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz paid tribute to Navalny’s legacy and decried Russian President Vladimir Putin’s autocratic rule.
Remembrance events were taking place with Russia’s opposition movement – driven into exile by unprecedented repression – still plagued by infighting and badly weakened since the loss of its figurehead.
Exiled in various countries, its leading members have tried to revive the fight against Putin’s long reign, including in Russia where criticism of authorities is severely punished.
Navalny – Putin’s main opponent – was declared an “extremist” by Russian authorities, a ruling that remains in force despite his death in an Arctic penal colony on Feb 16, 2024.
In Russia, anybody who mentions Navalny or his Anti-Corruption Foundation without stating that they have been declared “extremist” is subject to fines, or up to four years in prison for repeated offences.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, was set to share memories of her husband at an event in Berlin, where many Russian opposition supporters have settled.
In a video released on Sunday, she urged supporters to keep fighting for a “free, peaceful and beautiful” Russia.
Navalny’s former top aide Leonid Volkov had urged supporters to mark the occasion in a Telegram post, giving opening hours of the cemetery where Navalny is buried.
Source: CNA
