Following the funeral of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Moscow, several of those who attended were arrested, according to civil rights activists.
A man and a woman who had attended Navalny’s funeral last Friday as well as separate memorial events were arrested today, according to the website OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights media organization. At the same time, a woman from Moscow remained in custody overnight at a police station.
Police officers said they identified the woman because a video camera recorded her at Navalny’s funeral shouting a slogan that translates as “Glory to the heroes”.
This slogan expresses support for Ukraine, which has been repelling the Russian invasion for more than two years. The Ovd-Info website reported that the woman was later fined.
Hundreds of arrests
A spokesman for Ovd-Info told Russian news channel Agentstvo that it is still too early to say that a wave of arrests has begun.
However, he emphasized that his organization had previously warned that police could track down people after Navalny’s funeral, using video footage and new facial recognition technologies.
On the day of the funeral, more than 100 people were arrested. Most of the arrests took place in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, with some in Moscow.
In addition, hundreds of arrests were made in the following days as people tried to lay flowers at memorials to honor his memory.
Navalny, who was considered the staunchest critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died on February 16 in a Siberian penal colony under circumstances that have not yet been clarified.
Thousands of people attended his funeral in a suburb of Moscow last Friday.
To the surprise of many observers, despite a heavy police presence, police let his supporters proceed, even as they chanted clear anti-Kremlin slogans such as “No to war!” and “Russia without Putin!”.
Source: RES-MPE
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