The US ambassador to Russia visited an improvised memorial to Alexei Navalny

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The United States ambassador to Russia visited an improvised memorial in Moscow this Sunday in honor of the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny, whose death in prison moved many citizens who sought to pay tribute to him, despite the prohibition by the authorities.

The news of Navalny’s death spread around the planet, moving hundreds of people in dozens of Russian cities to visit makeshift memorial sites and monuments to victims of political repression to pay tribute to the politician with flowers and candles.

Human rights groups reported that nearly 400 people were detained at rallies in memory of Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, who died in the Arctic prison where he was being held on Friday. Among those detained was a priest of the Orthodox Apostolic Church who announced on social media his plans to officiate at a religious service in memory of Navalny and was subsequently hospitalized for a stroke.

The American ambassador, Lynne Tracy, visited the Solovetsky Stone this Sunday, a monument in tribute to the repression during the Soviet period that has become a place of pilgrimage for Navalny’s supporters. The US embassy in Moscow issued a statement expressing condolences and honoring Navalny’s memory.

Police set up fences at makeshift memorial sites in Moscow to try to keep Navalny’s supporters away, but some people managed to get over the fences and place their flowers. Navalny’s death has sparked condemnation from Western powers and accusations that Russian authorities were responsible for his death.

His death came a month before Russia’s presidential election, and questions remained about the cause of death on Sunday. The Federal Penitentiary Service reported that Navalny had felt ill after a walk on Friday and fell unconscious at the penal colony in the town of Kharp, in the Yamalo-Nenets region, about 1,900 kilometers northeast of Moscow. The cause of death was still “being determined.”

Navalny, who had been in prison since January 2021, had returned to Moscow after recovering in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. He received three prison sentences after his arrest on several charges he claimed were politically motivated.