Russia has imprisoned over 400 people while grieving the loss of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s most formidable opponent

According to a well-known rights organization, more than 400 people were imprisoned in Russia on Sunday as they paid respects to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who passed away in a remote prison colony in the Arctic.

Many Russians who had placed their future expectations in the hands of President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable opponent were devastated by the unexpected death of Navalny, 47. Even after surviving a nerve agent attack and serving many jail sentences, Navalny persisted in his outspoken criticism of the Kremlin.

As word spread throughout the world, numerous international leaders accused President Vladimir Putin and his administration of being responsible for the tragedy. Shortly after leaving a Saturday church service, President Joe Biden spoke with reporters and restated his belief that Putin was ultimately to responsible for Navalny’s demise. In actuality, Putin bears responsibility. Whether he gave the order or not, he has responsibility for the situation, Biden said. It’s a reflection of his personality. It is not acceptable.

In the meantime, Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Navalny, shared a photo of the pair on Instagram on Sunday—the first time she had posted on the platform since her husband’s passing. It said, rather simply, “I love you.” On Friday and Saturday, hundreds of people flocked to makeshift monuments and memorials honoring those who have suffered from political persecution in several Russian cities, bringing flowers and candles as a sign of respect for the politician. By Saturday night, police had arrested 401 individuals in more than a dozen locations, according to the rights organization OVD-Info, which keeps tabs on political arrests and offers legal assistance.

The second-largest city in Russia, St. Petersburg, saw more than 200 arrests, according to the organization. One of the people arrested was Grigory Mikhnov-Voitenko, a priest of the Apostolic Orthodox Church, which is separate from the Russian Orthodox Church. He was seized on Saturday morning outside his house after announcing on social media that he would be holding a memorial ceremony for Navalny. He was arrested and detained in a police station on charges of protest organization, however, OVD-Info said that he subsequently had a stroke and was admitted to the hospital.

According to court authorities late on Saturday, judges in St. Petersburg have ruled that 42 of the people seized on Friday spend one to six days in prison, while nine others were fined. OVD-Info reports that at least six individuals in Moscow received orders to spend fifteen days in prison. According to the organization, two additional people were imprisoned in the city of Bryansk and one more in the southern city of Krasnodar.

The announcement of Navalny’s passing was made one month before to Russia’s presidential election, which is most likely going to extend President Vladimir Putin’s term in office by another six years.

It was still unclear when Navalny’s remains will be released by the authorities and there were unanswered questions about the cause of death. According to OVD-Info on Sunday, over 12,000 individuals have written to the Russian government requesting that the politician’s remains be given to his family.

The politician was “murdered,” according to Navalny’s team, who also claimed that the government was purposefully delaying the corpse’s release. Navalny’s mother and attorneys received conflicting information from the many institutions they visited in their search for the body. Kira Yarmysh, a spokesman for Navalny, said on Saturday that “they’re driving us around in circles and covering their tracks.”

“Everything in the colony is covered with cameras. Over the years, every move he made was captured on camera from every angle. Every worker have a video recorder. Not a single video has been leaked or released in the last two days. Leonid Volkov, a strategist and Navalny’s closest associate, said on Sunday that there is no place for doubt in this situation.

According to Yarmysh, a message sent to Navalny’s mother said he passed away on Friday at 2:17 p.m. Ivan Zhdanov, the head of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said on X, previously known as Twitter, that prison authorities informed his mother that her son had died from “sudden death syndrome” when she arrived to the penal colony on Saturday.

According to the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, Navalny passed out in the prison colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region, some 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, on Friday after feeling ill after going for a stroll. He was not able to be revived when an ambulance came, according to the agency, which also said that the cause of death is still “being established.”

Since January 2021, when Navalny returned to Moscow after his recovery in Germany from nerve agent poisoning, which he attributed to the Kremlin, he has been imprisoned. Since his arrest, he has served three jail sentences for various crimes that he has denied being motivated by politics.

Navalny said he was aware he was “serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of this regime” after the most recent ruling that gave him a 19-year sentence.

Yulia Navalnaya, the spouse of Navalny, made a stunning appearance at the Munich Security Conference only hours after her husband’s death was announced.

“If this is true, I want Putin and everyone around Putin, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family and to my husband,” she added, adding that she wasn’t sure whether to accept the news from official Russian sources.