(RPT title)
MOSCOW/SAINT-PETERSBURG (Reuters) – At least 340 people were arrested on Saturday during rallies organized in around thirty Russian cities in tribute to Alexeï Navalny, the opponent of President Vladimir Putin who died the day before, according to the association of defense of rights OVD-Info.
This is the largest wave of arrests linked to political events in Russia since September 2022, when more than 1,300 people were arrested during demonstrations against the mobilization of reservists for the military campaign in Ukraine.
Alexei Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, died on Friday after a walk in the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp, about 1,900 km northeast of Moscow, where he was serving a 30-year sentence, authorities said Russians the day before.
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According to OVD-Info, which monitors freedom of assembly in Russia, the highest number of arrests on Saturday took place in St. Petersburg and Moscow, with 74 and 49 people arrested respectively as of 2:09 p.m. GMT.
The association also reported arrests in smaller towns like Belgorod, where seven people were killed Thursday in a Ukrainian missile strike.
Images filmed by Reuters on Saturday in St. Petersburg showed dozens of people gathered near a monument dedicated to victims of the repression.
Protesters laid flowers and candles, while some sang hymns and others hugged each other and cried.
“I really felt sorry for him and for our country,” said an 83-year-old woman, who declined to give her name. “I am scared.”
Footage filmed by Reuters in Moscow showed police rounding up people on the ground in the snow, near a site where citizens had left flowers and messages of support for the deceased opposition leader.
“In each police department there may be more detainees than indicated in the published lists,” OVD-Info reported. “We only publish the names of people of whom we have reliable knowledge and whose names we can publish.”
Reuters could not immediately verify the tally. Police declined to comment.
(Reporting by Reuters; French version Kate Entringer and Elizabeth Pineau)
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