At least 340 people detained in Russia: rights group

ST PETERSBURG: At least 340 people have been detained at events across 30 Russian cities since the death of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, according to rights group OVD-Info.

It is the largest wave of arrests at political events in Russia since Sept. 2022, when more than 1,300 were arrested at demonstrations against a “partial mobilisation” of reservists for the military campaign in Ukraine.

Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic penal colony where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said.

OVD-Info, which reports on freedom of assembly in Russia, said the largest numbers of arrests on Saturday occurred in St Petersburg and Moscow, where Navalny’s movement had traditionally been strong, with 74 and 49 detained, respectively, as of 1409 GMT.

Footage filmed by Reuters on Saturday in St Petersburg showed dozens gathering by a monument to the victims of repression. Protesters laid flowers and candles, while some sang hymns and others hugged each other, shedding tears.

“I felt very sorry for him and for our country,” said an 83-year-old woman attending the vigil who declined to give her name. “I’m scared.”

A Reuters reporter at the scene said some 30 people were arrested shortly after the singing finished.

OVD-Info also reported individual arrests in smaller cities across Russia, from the border city of Belgorod.