Memory, repression e mystery. In the aftermath of the dissident’s death Alexei Navalny the regime of Putin has tried and is trying to repress the spontaneous and peaceful demonstrations in honor of his greatest bitter opponent. Hundreds of people stopped by the police. All this in the hours in which there is no news of what happened to the man’s corpse: according to the latest reconstructions the body must have been in the morgue of the city of Salekhard, but the opponent’s mother and lawyer, who arrived on site, announced that the structure had communicated that the body was not there. The exact time of death is also not at all clear: an inmate in the same prison as Navalny said that the man could have died much earlier than he expected.time communicated by the authorities . All sealed by the words of Navalny’s spokeswoman: “He was killed, it is clear that the authorities are lying and doing everything to avoid handing over the body.” A half confirmation in this sense came from the Russian Investigative Committee, which informed Navalny’s team that the body will not be handed over to his relatives “until the investigation is completed” into the causes of his death.
Demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg – Returning to the demonstrations, the salt is in the numbers: between yesterday and today, over 220 people were stopped in 21 Russian cities, including Moscow and San Petersburgduring gatherings in memory of Navalny, at least according to what the human rights organization Ong-Info reports. Exact same thing this morning: many people lined up in the capital in front of the Lubyanka, the former headquarters of the Soviet KGB and now of the FSB security services, to pay homage to the memory of the dissident. At the beginning of the morning, around a hundred citizens were lined up to lay flowers on the Solovetsky Stone, which commemorates the victims of repression during the Soviet Union. Subsequently the queue shrank. There police he monitored the situation without intervening, only inviting people not to stay for long. About fifteen people, the NGO Ovd-Info announced, were instead stopped in front of another monument in the capital which commemorates the victims of the USSR, the so-called ‘Western Wall‘. The officers intervened when the chorus of “shame, shame” arose from the people who had gathered. Now the situation has returned to calm and only agents and journalists remained in front of the monument. TO St.Pietroburgo among those arrested there is also an Orthodox priest who wanted to celebrate mass on the public square.
What happens in other Russian cities – During the night, however, some plainclothes officers quickly removed the Spontaneous memorials set up with flowers and cards in different cities. In vain. Because other tributes towards the dissident continue to appear, even just a few hundred meters away, at the foot of other monuments. In Moscow, for example, flowers had also been placed at ponte Moskvoretskywhere the opponent was killed eight years ago Boris Nemtsov. A Irkutsk police photographed everyone who brought flowers to a memorial for Navalny near a chapel next to the regional government headquarters. A memorial to Ulyanovsk, near a monument for the victims of political repression, was made disappear. TO Vladivostok some municipal workers took away the flowers placed in the park of Faith and Hope after the police recorded the identity of those who showed up, and the same happened in Khabarovsk. Also in Vladivostok, people began to lay flowers at the foot of monuments to the poet Osip Mandelstam, who mocked Stalin in one of his works, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who first described the gulags. New memorials also appeared in Nakhodka, Khabarovsk, Krasnoturyinsk and Novosibirsk. Here the police blocked access to a memorial monument and arrested several people, as also happened in another Siberian city, Surgut. Even in Israel, where several thousand people of Russian origin live, hundreds of people gathered in front of the Moscow embassy in Tel Aviv shouting “Russia without Putin” and “Russia will be free”.
Mystery over the body of the dissident – In the meantime, a mystery has arisen around the dissident’s body. The mother was formally informed of the death of Putin’s opponent in prison: her team made this known, adding that Navalny’s relatives asked that his body be handed over to them “immediately”. Again according to some members of the dissident’s team quoted by the independent newspaper Dozhdan employee of the penal colony where Navalny was held said that the body was transferred to the city of Salekhardcapital of the Arctic district of Location– Yesnets. Here he is at the disposal of the Investigative Committee, which has opened an investigation into his death. Alexey’s lawyer and his mother arrived on site, as told by the opponent’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh. Result? The morgue was closed, although the penal colony assured that it was open and that Navalny’s body was there. “The lawyer called the phone number that was on the door. He was told that he was the seventh to call today. Alexey’s body is not in the morgue,” wrote Kira Yarmysh. Which she then accused: “Alexei Navalny he was murdered.” Not only. To another of Navalny’s lawyers, who addressed the investigative committee of Salekhard, it was said that “the cause of Alexey’s death has not yet been established and a new histological examination has been carried out” he always said Kira Yarmyshwho then added: “The results should be available there next week: it is clear that they are lying and doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body.”
The testimony of the prisoner – The exact time of death remains to be verified. Alexei Navalny in fact he would have died much earlier than announced by the Russian penitentiary authorities, most likely on the night between Thursday and Friday: this was testified by an inmate of the penal colony number 3 of Kharp, in the Yamal Nenets region, cited by Novaya Gazeta Europe. The dissident’s death, he added, seems to have taken him by surprise prison staff. Yesterday morning one began inspection thorough of the penal colony. Late in the evening and at night cars could be heard arriving at the complex colonia CRIMINAL, at least in three different waves. And on Thursday evening i warders they accelerated the checks and the closing of prisoners’ cells. Usually instead the inspectionsknown a month in advance, are prepared by everyone, jailers e prisoners to avoid problems. And instead yesterday one suddenly started. At ten in the morning (local time) the news of Aleksei Navalny’s death arrived. At two in the afternoon Federal Penitentiary Service published the news. But The basea news site usually well informed on security issues, had announced that Navalny had felt ill around 1pm and that he had died at 2.17pm, the same time the spokeswoman spoke of Kira Yarmich, confirming the death. But they have not been spotted ambulances yesterday morning. They arrived only after everyone knew that the opponent was dead. Therefore, Navalny must have died much earlier than was announced, most likely at night. “Why else would they lock us in the cell and conduct an inspection in the morning?” the source added.