2024-02-18 13:11:47
US Ambassador to Moscow Lynn Tracy was photographed at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to political repression that has become a major site for Navalny tributes. “Today at the Solovetsky Stone we mourn the death of Alexei Navalny and other victims of political repression in Russia,” the US embassy said on social media.
“We express our deepest condolences to the family, colleagues and supporters of Alexei Navalny. His strength is an inspiring example. We honor his memory,” the statement said.
At a separate makeshift memorial known as the “Wall of Sorrow,” a bronze memorial to Soviet-era repression, police had erected fences in an attempt to keep mourners away. Several dozen police officers could be seen standing nearby, but some people were allowed to enter through the fence and to lay flowers, an AFP reporter saw.
Navalny, 47, was seen by many Russians as their best hope for change after years of alleged corruption and spiraling state oppression. His death after more than three years behind bars has sparked a storm of condemnation from the West and despair among his supporters, many of whom are young people. “It was not death, it was murder,” Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny’s closest associates, wrote in Telegram, BNR reported.
“His life’s work must win,” he said.