2024-06-06 00:36:17
Greater than 100 supporters of the late Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny paid tribute to him right this moment – his birthday – by putting a pile of flowers at his grave in Moscow, AFP reported.
A distinguished determine recognized for his anti-corruption investigations and a pointy critic of the Kremlin, Navalny, 48, died underneath unclear circumstances in an Arctic jail in February, in keeping with AFP.
Regardless of the size of repression in Russia, a few of his supporters lined his grave with dozens of portraits, notes, drawings, flowers and painted by hand posters. A number of dozen individuals, principally younger individuals, sang songs to the accompaniment of a guitar, whereas others cried on the facet, BTA reported.
The posters learn: “Pleased Birthday Hero!”, “We is not going to hand over!” and “You have been a genius.”
“It is Alex’s birthday right this moment so I could not resist coming. It is a pity that we misplaced this particular person,” Tatiana, a 47-year-old Muscovite sporting dove-shaped earrings, advised AFP.
Elizaveta, a 19-year-old scholar, had come to satisfy “like-minded individuals”. “Alexei was an important particular person, he did numerous issues,” she says with tears in her eyes.
“Once you see so many individuals, you notice that what impacts us impacts a whole lot, 1000’s of different individuals,” 20-year-old Nikita advised an AFP reporter.
On the cemetery the place Navalny is buried, there was a discreet police presence right this moment, in keeping with AFP.
On social networks, the associates and allies of Alexei Navalny, most of whom are in exile and overseas, additionally paid tribute to the late opposition chief and shared photographs and reminiscences of him.
“Pleased birthday, Alexey. You have been a genius,” wrote his right-hand man, Leonid Volkov, who lives in exile in Lithuania.
The widow of opposition determine Yulia Navalna attended a memorial service in a Berlin church led by an Orthodox priest who was banned from serving in Russia due to his remarks towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, AFP famous.