Supporters of Alexei Navalny laid flowers on his grave in Moscow on Sunday, one year after the Russian opposition activist’s death in a penal colony in the Arctic Circle.
Independent media reported that police had permitted entry to the Borisovskoye Cemetery, but filmed the proceedings. Human rights activists warned of the risk of arrest due to his anti-corruption foundation being classified as “extremist” and banned in Russia.
Among the visitors to the grave were foreign diplomats, including US Ambassador Lynne Tracy and EU Ambassador Roland Galharague, media reports said.
Memorial events were also held in other Russian cities, including St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, media reported. In the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia, at least five people were arrested at a memorial event, the civil rights project OWD-Info said.
Navalny’s team plans to mark the anniversary with a live broadcast online, during which friends and associates will remember his work.
Events including rallies, screenings of the documentary “Navalny” and vigils were also planned.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, also invited people to a memorial evening at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.
She wrote on Instagram that no day had passed during which she had not thought of Navalny, consulted with him in her mind and also discussed with him.
“I love you very much. I miss you greatly,” she posted.
Navalnaya, who is continuing her husband’s opposition work while in exile, later called for people to fight for a free and peaceful Russia.
In December, Navalnaya launched a competition to design a memorial to be erected on her husband’s grave in Moscow.
Hundreds of ideas were submitted, mostly from Russia but also internationally. Earlier this month, Navalnaya called for a vote on three shortlisted designs and for donations for the construction of the stone monument. The final design is set to be revealed on Sunday.
Navalnaya said in a video message that the monument would not only be a place of rest or remembrance: “It will be a place of hope and strength for all those who believe in its principles and dream of a beautiful Russia in the future.”
One of the most prominent opponents of President Vladimir Putin, Navalny was poisoned in 2020 ahead of regional elections in Siberia. He was flown out to a Berlin hospital, where nerve agent poisoning was diagnosed.
Once recovered, he returned to Russia and was immediately arrested on charges relating to a previous failure to report to the authorities.
A court later sentenced him to nine years on charges of fraud and insulting a judge. A further trial on a charge of extremism, which Navalny termed politically motivated, increased the sentence to 19 years.
Navalny was detained in a penal colony in the Arctic Circle, where he died under suspicious circumstances at the age of 47. The circumstances of his death have not been clarified.
