Unsanctioned protest actions and gatherings in memory of murdered political prisoner Alexey Navalny took place in cities across Russia on Saturday, despite the police warning the public against participating in what it called “illegal mass actions”.
Human rights non-profit OVD-Info reported that 157 people had been arrested in 25 different cities across Russia, the largest number of whom were detained in Russia’s second city St. Petersburg.
OVD-Info said that at least 60 people had been detained across the city, around 30 of whom were rounded up and taken away by police after assembling at the Monument to the Victims of Political Repression, one of the detainees later told Novaya Europe.
“We were standing near the monument. At one point the security forces started to disperse us. They then began catching us one by one, as if they were hunting animals,” the detainee said.
Police detained at least another seven people attending a memorial service for Navalny being held next to the Solovetsky Stone, a giant rock brought to St. Petersburg from Solovki, the Soviet Union’s first prison camp in the Russian far north.
In Moscow, people gathered at the Wall of Grief, a memorial to the victims of Stalinist repression opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2017. Anyone attempting to lay flowers at the site was reportedly removed by police, who detained at least 15 protesters, Telegram channel SOTA reported.
