Death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny: More than 200 people arrested during protests in Russia

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Russian police officers drag away a participant in a memorial event in Moscow

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According to human rights activists in Russia, more than 212 people have now been arrested at rallies in memory of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. This would be the largest wave of arrests in Russia since the arrest of more than 1,300 people during demonstrations against partial mobilization for the Ukrainian war in September 2022. The authorities have now arrested at least 109 people in Saint Petersburg alone and at least 39 people in Moscow, the online civil rights platform reports OVD info with. In total there were arrests in 21 Russian cities.

"How great the power apparatus's fear of a dead person is when even laying flowers in his memory is viewed as a crime," wrote the Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Kremlin-critical newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitri Muratov, on the news channel on Saturday Telegram.

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Media in many parts of Russia reported that despite evictions and arrests, fresh flowers continued to be laid, candles were lit and pictures were put up in memory of Navalny. There were also numerous rallies abroad in memory of the Kremlin opponent, mostly in front of Russian diplomatic missions.

In Germany, the largest rally will take place on Sunday afternoon in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin, the FreeNavalny campaign said on Saturday. They expect 500 or more participants, said campaign coordinator Eugene Nasyrov. Further rallies have been announced for this Saturday in Bremen, Hanover, Stuttgart and Saarbrücken. There will also be protests in Frankfurt am Main on Sunday. On Friday, shortly after the news of Navalny's death, hundreds of people demonstrated in Berlin, Munich and other cities.

Mother and lawyer search in vain for body

On Friday, the Russian penal system informed about Navalny's death, who had been imprisoned since 2021. Later, Navalny's team also confirmed his death. His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch announced this on Saturday on X (formerly Twitter), citing Navalny's mother Lyudmila Navalnaya. She had traveled to the prison camp in northern Russia and received news of her death there. The 47-year-old's death is said to have occurred on February 16 at 2:17 p.m. local time (10:17 a.m. CET).

However, there was initially no trace of Navalny's body. An employee of the prison camp beyond the Arctic Circle reported that Navalny's body was in the city of Salekhard for examination, Yarmysch said. Accordingly, the mother was initially unable to personally identify the body. The cause of death is also still unclear.

The morgue in Salekhard, almost 50 kilometers from the prison camp, was closed on Saturday. However, Navalny's lawyer didn't get any further via a contact telephone number posted at the entrance. “He was told that he was the seventh caller that day,” Jarmysch wrote. "And Alexei's body is not in their morgue."

Authorities speak of “sudden death syndrome”

A second lawyer was told that the cause of death was not yet known and that further histological examination had been carried out, the results of which were expected next week, Jarmysch wrote. "It's obvious that they're lying and doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body." The lawyers were only told that the investigations had revealed "nothing criminal." According to a confidant of the opposition politician, Russian authorities cite “sudden death syndrome” as the cause of Alexei Navalny’s death.

According to Russian authorities, Navalny, who was physically weakened after many days in repeated solitary confinement, collapsed on Friday while walking in the prison camp in freezing temperatures. According to the prison service, attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful. Human rights activists accuse the Russian power apparatus of murder. The prominent anti-corruption campaigner's employees also assumed that Navalny was deliberately killed.

As a globally recognized Russian opposition leader, Navalny embodied the hope for a future after the dictatorship, wrote expert Alexander Baunow for the Carnegie think tank on Saturday. Even in the prison camp, the politician remained a nuisance for the Kremlin. "But the effort itself to get rid of such an irritating figure also shows that the regime is not as convinced of itself and its future as it would like to appear." Russia's power apparatus repeatedly uses violence against those who think differently. Protests have not been allowed in the country for years.

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