Time for contemplation.
The mother of Alexeï Navalny, the main critic of Vladimir Putin who died in prison in murky circumstances, visited his grave on Saturday, the day after a funeral where thousands of Russians paid tribute to him despite the risk of arrest.
Alexei Navalny, the Russian president's fiercest critic for more than a decade, died on February 16 at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence for "extremism ".
The multiple trials brought against him had been widely denounced as a way of punishing him for his opposition to Vladimir Putin.
Already present during the burial of the coffin on Friday, the mother of the opponent, Lyoudmila Navalnaïa, went again early Saturday morning to his grave, covered with flowers and wreaths, at the Borissovo cemetery, in the south from Moscow.
She was accompanied by Alla Abrossimova, the mother of Alexeï Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaïa.
Yulia Navalnaïa, as well as the couple's two children and Alexei Navalny's brother, live abroad and did not attend the funeral, where they could have been arrested for opposition to the Kremlin.
Alexei Navalny's widow has vowed to continue her husband's work and has repeatedly said in recent days that Vladimir Putin had "assassinated" him.
Also read “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny”: Yulia Navalnaïa, the opposition’s legacy
On Saturday morning, several mourners placed flowers on the opponent's grave and the police presence remained continuous at the cemetery, near the banks of the Moskva River.
On Friday, thousands of supporters of Alexeï Navalny had queued for hours to pay tribute to him, many with tears in their eyes and trembling voices.
As they streamed from a nearby church toward the cemetery, some chanted “No to war!”
» and other slogans in favor of Navalny, including calling Putin a “murderer” and calling for the “release of political prisoners”.
Human rights NGO OVD-Info said Russian police arrested at least 128 people participating in tributes to Navalny in 19 cities on Friday.
VIDEO Navalny's funeral: thousands of supporters pay a final tribute to the Russian opponent
The scenes of thousands of people marching in support of Alexei Navalny, demanding an end to the Russian assault in Ukraine and castigating the Kremlin, have not been seen in Russia since the first days following Moscow's order to hundreds of thousands of soldiers to cross the border at the end of February 2022.
The Kremlin has since cracked down hard on dissent and used tough new military censorship laws to prosecute hundreds of people who spoke out publicly against the offensive.
This all-out repression, in addition to the partial mobilization in the fall of 2022, has also pushed a number of Russians to go abroad.