Moscow may have a cool subway system, but it lacks one important thing: respect for human rights. Russian authorities repressed those mourning the death of Alexei Navalny over the weekend. He was a prominent critic of the Kremlin and a dissident. More than 100 people were detained or arrested after attending an event honoring Navalny.
Navalny’s death triggered a wave of grief and outrage in the country and around the world. Navalny’s death was not enough; the Russian government will not allow Russians even to mourn him.
Official court announcements revealed that Russian courts sentenced to prison dozens of detained people at commemorations for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, with 154 sentences handed down in Saint Petersburg.
The rulings of the court published on Saturday and Sunday by the city’s courts showed that 154 people were sentenced to jail for up to 14 days for violating Russia’s strict antiprotest laws.
Media outlets and rights groups reported similar sentences in other parts of the country.
The police arrested hundreds of Russians over the weekend in dozens of cities, who had come to place flowers and light candles at memorials for victims of Stalin’s repressions.
In Russia, anti-Kremlin rallies and public displays of opposition are illegal under the strict military censorship laws.
The wave of arrests and the acoustic silence of the Kremlin highlights the growing gulf between the Russian state and its critics. This is especially true at a moment when Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to begin a new term.
The news of Navalny’s death spread through Russian cities. This prompted hundreds to light candles and lay flowers in memory of their fallen hero. Their actions revealed the real reason Navalny had been a government critic in the first instance.
Police scoured Russian cities for people honoring Navalny and commemorating his death to arrest and disrupt.
In dozens of Russian towns, police and plainclothes men patrolled the sites where people had gathered over the weekend to remember Navalny.
There were reports that they removed the pop-up monuments overnight. Footage showed hooded people scooping flowers into bags near the Kremlin, where Boris Nemtsov was murdered in 2015.
It was reported on Sunday that Russian authorities had told Navalny’s mother he died from “sudden-death syndrome.” This raised more suspicions about his true cause of death.
It has now been reported that the Russian Government told Navalny’s mother that his death was caused by “sudden-death syndrome.”
His team reported that Alexei Navalny’s mother learned on Saturday that Russia’s most prominent opponent leader was suffering from “sudden-death syndrome”. The body of the opposition leader would not be given to his family until a full investigation is completed.
Navalny, 47, a former lawyer who was serving a 3-decade sentence at Kharp’s “Polar Wolf” colony, died after falling unconscious on Friday during a walk.
Sudden death syndrome can be described as “a term that encompasses a variety of cardiac syndromes which cause sudden cardiac arrest or death”.
The repression of mourners and demonstrators highlights the fragile state of political dissent and free speech in Russia. This incident sheds more light on Russia’s hostility to human rights, and willingness to use force to suppress dissent.
