Protests are illegal in Russia under strict anti-dissent laws. (document)
Moscow:
Moscow warned people on Friday not to take to the streets in protest, hours after the death of top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Pictures on social media showed people laying flowers in Navalny’s memory at a memorial to victims of political repression. Russian authorities said Navalny died on Friday at an Arctic prison colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence.
The prosecutor’s office in the Russian capital said it had noticed online calls to “participate in mass rallies in the center of Moscow” and said it was “necessary to warn against breaking the law.”
Protests are illegal in Russia under strict anti-dissent laws, and authorities have cracked down particularly hard on pro-Navalny rallies.
In Moscow, dozens of people laid red and white roses at the Solovetsky Monument, a memorial to victims of Soviet-era repression opposite the once-fearsome headquarters of Russia’s FSB security service The seat of the Soviet secret police.
At least one person was detained for holding up a placard that appeared to read “murderer,” according to a video posted by the independent Sota Telegram channel.
Some were also photographed gathering to lay flowers on a bridge next to the Kremlin, where Putin critic Boris Nemtsov was killed in 2015.
Police also filmed people dispersing snow to gather at a memorial in central Kazan.
Some larger demonstrations also took place in Tbilisi, Yerevan and Belgrade, home to large numbers of Russians who fled the country after Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine.
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