News
One of the picketers detained in Moscow. Photo: SotaVision
On Feb. 16, the second anniversary of the death of Anti-Corruption Foundation founder Alexei Navalny, at least 15 people were detained in Russia, according to a count by The Insider. An administrative case was filed against one of them, while another could face administrative arrest.
According to data compiled by the independent human rights project OVD-Info, at least nine people were detained in Ufa alone. All were released without reports being filed, but most signed a warning notice.
In Moscow, police filed a report for the “failure to fulfill parental responsibilities” against the father of a teenager who staged a solo picket near the main entrance of the VDNKh exhibition center. The teen’s poster read: “Russia will be free! 16.02.2024.” The picketer himself — along with journalist Grigory Potemkin, who was detained with him — were released without reports being filed.
In St. Petersburg, police detained 22-year-old Alexandra Churakova as she tried to leave a photograph of Navalny at a monument to victims of political repression. She could face a charge of displaying banned symbols, according to OVD-Info, under a statute that provides for administrative arrest. A lawyer was not allowed to see Churakova. In St. Petersburg police also detained and released a man who photographed the monument to victims of political repression; no report was filed.
A detainee in the Volgograd Region told OVD-Info that at a police station he was photographed, fingerprinted, and confronted with details from his biography before being released.
On Feb. 16, memorial events dedicated to Alexei Navalny took place in over a hundred cities across Russia and abroad. In Moscow, supporters brought flowers, candles, notes, and photographs to the Borisovskoye Cemetery, where the opposition politician is buried, and all across the country, others did the same at local monuments to victims of political repression.
Alexei Navalny died on Feb. 16, 2024, at penal colony IK-3 in the settlement of Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District of Russia. As The Insider reported on Feb. 14, an expert examination carried out at the initiative of the UK, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands found epibatidine in samples taken from Navalny’s body that had been smuggled out of Russia by his family members. An official press release from the five countries’ foreign ministries concluded that “collaborative work has confirmed through laboratory testing that the deadly toxin found in the skin of Ecuador dart frogs (epibatidine) was found in samples from Alexei Navalny’s body and highly likely resulted in his death.”