6 days ago
Arrests in Russia as Navalny supporters mark his birthday
The birthday of Alexei Navalny was marked on Wednesday by his supporters more than a year after the Russian dissident's death in a penal colony.
OVD Info human rights group reported that eight people had been detained while laying flowers in Novosibirsk in Siberia.
Videos broadcast on social media showed supporters gathered at Navalny's grave in Moscow. His mother was among those attending.
Navalny, one of the most prominent opponents of President Vladimir Putin, would have turned 49 on Wednesday.
After surviving a near-fatal attack with the Novichok nerve agent in 2020, he died under mysterious circumstances in the Polar Wolf prison in the Arctic Circle in February last year.
His widow, Julia Navalnaya, has continued his work in exile. Her latest project in collaboration with the organization Reporters without Borders is television broadcaster "Russia's Future," whose launch was announced in Paris on Tuesday.
The broadcaster is to be available in Russia via satellite from Wednesday.
"It is important to keep his legacy, and I am sure he would be very happy that new people are receiving information about the Kremlin regime, corruption, war, and everything that's going on in Russia right now," Navalnaya said at the launch.
She posted a photo of herself with her husband on X. No day went past without thinking of him, she said.
Navalnaya also announced a memorial concert in Berlin on June 28, at which a prize in Navalny's name will be awarded for the first time. Internet portal Meduza reported that Pet Shop Boys would headline the concert.
