Moscow:

More than 400 individuals have been detained at gatherings spanning 32 cities in Russia since the death of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's prominent opponent, according to the rights group OVD-Info. This marks the most extensive round of arrests at political assemblies in the country since September 2022, when over 1,300 were detained during protests against Putin's military actions in Ukraine, involving the "partial mobilization" of reservists.

Navalny, a former lawyer aged 47, tragically passed away on Friday after losing consciousness during a walk at the "Polar Wolf" Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a lengthy sentence, as confirmed by the prison service.

The bulk of the arrests occurred in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where Navalny had garnered considerable support. As of 2000 GMT on Saturday, over 200 individuals had been apprehended in St. Petersburg alone. However, Russian state news agencies, directly controlled by the Kremlin, have made no mention of these incidents. Similarly, there has been no coverage of the hundreds of individuals across Russia who have continued to gather and lay flowers at impromptu memorials for Navalny, despite defying authorities.

Navalny's death has dealt a significant blow to the disjointed Russian opposition, leaving them without their most prominent leader as Putin gears up for the March presidential election – an election widely perceived as a formality to maintain Putin's grip on power until at least 2030. His sudden death sparked international outrage with Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden blaming Putin.

Footage captured by Reuters in St. Petersburg depicted numerous individuals congregating at a monument dedicated to victims of repression. They laid flowers and candles, sang hymns, embraced each other, and shed tears in mourning. OVD-Info also documented individual detentions in smaller cities across Russia, ranging from Belgorod, where seven people were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike, to Vorkuta, an Arctic mining town that was once a hub for Stalin-era gulag labor camps.

In a show of solidarity, residents of Luhansk, now under Russian control, laid flowers in Navalny's honor at a monument commemorating victims of Joseph Stalin’s regime. Elsewhere, flowers were laid at a monument honoring heroes of the early 20th-century Russian Revolution. Despite efforts by authorities to remove the floral tributes, they continue to reappear, as noted by the online news outlet SOTA.

In Moscow, Reuters footage captured law enforcement personnel forcibly detaining individuals near a location where mourners had left flowers and messages supporting Navalny's cause. OVD-Info emphasized that the actual number of detainees could surpass those listed publicly, as they only publish the names of individuals whose detention they can reliably verify. At the time of reporting, Reuters was unable to independently verify the total count of detentions, and police declined to comment on the matter.