Opposition in Russia: Nawalny’s death: hundreds of flowers lay down on the grave

According to media reports, hundreds of Moscow citizens laid out flowers at the grave of the Kremlin critic a year after the death of the opposition leader Alexej Nawalny in a Russian criminal camp. The police granted them access to the Borissowskoje cemetery, but the mourners were filmed by officials, as independent media reported. Among the visitors were also foreign diplomats, including US ambassador Lynne Tracy and EU ambassador Roland Galharague.

According to independent media, a snake of waiting people formed. There were also memorial campaigns in other Russian cities, including in St. Petersburg and Jekaterinburg. In the city of Novosibirsk there were at least five arrests at a memorial event for Nawalny, the OWD-Info civil rights project said.

Demand for the release of the political prisoners

The Great Britain, Germany, France and other countries were responsible for the release of the political prisoners imprisoned in Russia on the first day of his death. “There are over 800 political prisoners in Russia, including many who are detained because they spoke out against the illegal invasion of the Kremlin into Ukraine and brutality towards the Ukrainian people,” says a joint statement. Russia maintains “a climate of fear”.

Moving words from Julia Nawalnaja

Nawalny’s widow, Julia Nawalnaja, wrote on Instagram that there was no day this year when she did not think of Nawalny, laughed with him, advised himself internally, but also discussed with him. “I love you very much, I miss you very much, I miss you like that.” Later she called on to fight for free and peaceful Russia.

Nawalny was the best -known opponent of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. In 2020 he was poisoned during a stay in Siberia to prepare regional elections. After being flown to Germany for treatment in a coma, the treating Berlin Charité diagnosed a nerve steam as the cause. The Russian government rejected any participation in the attack.

When he returned to Moscow, Nawalny was arrested at the airport and was detained from an earlier procedure for violating reporting. Later, Russian courts sentenced him to nine years in prison for alleged embezzlement and insult to a judge. After another process for extremism, the prison sentence was increased to 19 years, which he was supposed to serve in a penalty camp on the Arctic Circle. At the time of death, Nawalny was only 47 years old.