For the second day in a row, mourners walked purposefully alongside Moscow’s snow-heaped Garden Ring on Saturday carrying bouquets to put at one of many improvised memorials to Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition determine who perished in a jail colony the day earlier than.
The flowers, wrapped in paper to defend them from the icy wind, weren’t solely a logo of mourning. They additionally served as a type of protest in a rustic the place even the mildest dissent can danger detention. And the individuals who laid bouquets on the Wall of Grief, a monument to the victims of political persecution in the course of the Stalin period, shared the conviction that the Russian state was behind Mr. Navalny’s loss of life.
“He didn’t die, he was killed,” mentioned Alla, 75, a pensioner who declined to provide her final title due to attainable repercussions.
“Theoretically, we knew that they wanted to destroy him,” mentioned her pal Elena, 77, whose arm was interlaced with Alla’s. “But when it happened it was such a shock, the senseless brutality of it, just senseless.” She came upon what had occurred when her daughter and granddaughter referred to as her in tears to share the news.
Both ladies expressed delight that folks have been displaying as much as categorical their disagreement with the state, regardless of the sweeping crackdown on dissent since Russian President Vladimir V. Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine virtually two years in the past.
In asserting Mr. Navalny’s loss of life on Friday, Russia’s jail service mentioned that he felt abruptly unwell throughout a stroll and that the causes have been “being determined.” A lawyer for Mr. Navalny mentioned an “additional histology” had been carried out on the physique to find out the reason for his loss of life, and that its outcomes needs to be prepared subsequent week.
Some who confirmed up on the memorial gatherings paid the value. At least 400 individuals have been detained throughout Russia since Mr. Navalny’s loss of life was introduced on Friday, in response to the human rights group OVD-Info. Among them was a priest, Father Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko, who had been scheduled to carry a memorial service for Mr. Navalny in St. Petersburg.
It is essentially the most important spate of arrests since protests towards a basic mobilization for the conflict in Ukraine in Sept. 2022.
“They try to scare us so much that it is not possible to live,” mentioned Elena, who added that she nervous for the destiny of lots of of different political prisoners in Russia.
Fear prevented Andrei, a 17-year-old in eleventh grade, from shopping for flowers, however he needed to return and see what was occurring. He bristled when one passerby mocked the mourners and questioned Mr. Navalny’s legacy.
“What did he do for our country that deserves our prayers or mourning?” mentioned Sergei, a pensioner who additionally supplied simply his first title.
“What about smart voting?” ventured Andrei, referring to a system pioneered in 2018 by Mr. Navalny’s crew that inspired voters to unite round one opposition candidate, hoping to outpoll Putin loyalists.
“He was an empty person, just a puppet of the West,” Sergei responded.
As they spoke, dozens of police noticed and interacted with individuals coming to the advanced, and one other group of riot police in place appeared on half a block away. The Wall of Grief, in central Moscow, is on Sakharov Avenue, named after Andrei Sakharov, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose activism was punished with years of inner exile in Gorky, immediately often called Nizhny Novgorod.
The authorities has used the location to comprise protest actions by making it the one permitted venue at any time when public stress for a march has pressured a response. Mr. Navalny often addressed demonstrations there.
For Olya, 39, the heaps of flowers and candles served as a uncommon however precious reminder that she just isn’t alone in wanting a democratic, free Russia with out conflict.
“At a time like this it is so important to see that there are people who think like I do,” she mentioned, as she introduced roses to the Wall of Grief. Earlier, she mentioned she had laid flowers on the Solovetsky Stone, one other monument to victims of political repression, throughout from the headquarters of the F.S.B., the successor company of the Okay.G.B.
“And it’s a shame that in a short period of time, people come and go, and you can’t see all the people who came throughout a day, who are constantly being asked to leave,” she added. “But you can see flowers.”
Protests are successfully banned in Russia, and the arrests the previous two days present the extent to which the authorities are able to go to suppress public shows of anger or mourning.
“A responsible citizen who loves his homeland, was forced to leave it or is trying to the last not to leave it, has only one weapon — a memorial candle,” wrote Andrei Kolesnikov, a Moscow-based commentator, in an opinion piece he hopes to publish quickly, calling them “the last weapon of a civilized, not savage, person and citizen.”
On Friday, movies started circulating of males with their faces lined, eradicating flowers from the Solovetsky Stone, in what was interpreted as an indication the authorities don’t need the size of the outpouring of grief to grow to be public.
Still, life largely went on as normal throughout Moscow, with eating places and purchasing districts bustling. And news of Mr. Navalny’s loss of life, the improvised memorials and the arrests have been largely lacking from news broadcasts on Saturday.
State tv channels Rossiya24 and Rossiya-1 as a substitute mentioned the Munich Security Conference and the Russian seize of Avdiivka in Ukraine, and featured the “Russia International Exhibit and Forum,” a patriotic showcase celebrating the meals, know-how and tradition of every of the nation’s areas.
Russian state-controlled Channel 1 talked about Mr. Navalny in its news bulletins solely 3 times, for about 30 seconds every and with out mentioning he was a politician and even the official motive for his imprisonment.
But for a lot of gathered in Moscow, the reminiscence of the protest will likely be indelible.
“Someday what we are watching may be in history books,” Andrei, the coed, whispered, as policemen urged him and a New York Times journalist to depart the premises. Watching the regular move of individuals bearing flowers, and below the growing stress of a police officer to maneuver alongside, he slipped into an underground crosswalk with a request.
“Please don’t forget that there are still many good people in this country,” he mentioned.
Neil MacFarquhar Alina Lobzina, Milana Mazaeva and Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com