A scene marked by absolute silence.
Hundreds of Muscovites followed one another all day Saturday to lay flowers in tribute to the opponent Alexeï Navalny, who died in prison the day before and who was for many a symbol of “hope”.
From the morning, the police cordoned off the square where the monument to the victims of political repression under the USSR is located, a traditional gathering place for the opposition near Sakharov Avenue, a street which bears the name of the famous Soviet dissident.
Dozens of officers and vans were on site.
In front of the monument called “Wall of Mourning”, hundreds of flowers, portraits of Alexeï Navalny and candles were placed by Muscovites, some of whom came with their families, with their children.
Women were crying.
“We will never forget, we will never forgive”, “Russia will be free”, “Who is next?
», “His heart beat for all of us, nothing is over”, could we read on signs placed among the flowers.
“Navalny gave us hope that injustice could be defeated.
Thanks to him, I believed that we could one day build the
wonderful Russia of the future
,” confided Alexandre, a 40-year-old driver, using a famous expression of the main Russian opponent.
“The news of Navalny’s death stunned me, stunned me.
For me, coming here and paying homage to him was a question of principle, he says.
But we must not despair.
I want to believe that injustice will one day be defeated.
»
Also read Sylvie Bermann, former ambassador to Moscow: “Navalny was an obsession for Putin”
The gathering did not escape the customary repression of this type of event: around fifteen people were arrested on Saturday, some of them unceremoniously, according to the independent media Sota.
AFP witnessed four arrests and in the evening, the police no longer let journalists near the monument.
“Not sadness, but hatred”
Friday evening, hundreds of Russians had already come to lay flowers in front of another monument dedicated to the victims of the Gulag, the Solovki stone, on the famous Lubyanka Square, the headquarters of the Soviet KGB and then the Russian FSB.
Elena, a 45-year-old doctor, was among them.
“I am not a supporter of Navalny.
But I wanted to show my respect to this political prisoner.
And to be that evening with people who share my position,” she says.
“It was sort of a silent solidarity.
I did not feel sadness, but hatred towards those who killed him,” adds Elena who, like the other interlocutors, preferred not to give her last name.
In total, 359 people were arrested during similar rallies in tribute to Alexeï Navalny in Russia over the last two days, according to a count by the specialized NGO OVD-Info.
Many spontaneous actions have also taken place across the world, in countries where there are many exiled Russians, such as in the Baltic countries or in Berlin.
The charismatic anti-corruption activist was especially popular with young people in big cities, like Moscow, where he came second in the 2013 municipal election, the last one in which he was allowed to run.
If the Kremlin's sworn enemy had been locked up in prison since his return to Russia at the beginning of 2021, he nevertheless represented for part of the population the distant hope of an end to authoritarianism and the Putin era.
His death on Friday in an Arctic prison, according to the authorities, in any case deprives the Russian opposition - crushed by years of repression, prison and exile - of its figurehead.
It comes a month before the presidential election in Russia, which should see Vladimir Putin remain in power for a new six-year term.