Russians risk arrest to mourn Alexei Navalny with vigils and flowers

Svetlana, a Russian literary scholar, knew she was risking arrest when she emerged from the Moscow metro to join hundreds of others drawn to the Solovetsky Stone to mark the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“I will never forget how I hid flowers under my jacket, exiting the metro station that was surrounded by police vans,” said Sveltana, declining to give her full name out of fear of potential retribution.

By Saturday evening, the monument to the victims of political repression was buried under a pile of flowers, with queues forming outside the nearest flower shops. Police allowed mourners to approach the stone one by one before demanding they leave immediately.

“Most people didn’t talk; there was a gloomy silence. At most, they lay flowers, took photos, crossed themselves, cried and left. But it’s already a lot and courageous in today’s times,” Svetlana said.

At least two of those who came to the memorial to pay tribute to Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony on Friday, were detained, human rights group OVD-Info reported.

The small, unsanctioned Moscow gathering was just one of the many spontaneous vigils for Navalny that sprung up in hundreds of cities over the weekend, from the far east of Russia to European, Asian and American capitals.

In Russia, the vigils led to mass detentions, a sign that even in death, Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s greatest antagonists, remained a threat to the Kremlin.

“Navalny is a name. It’s a brand. It is a set of ideological constructs. It will not disappear with Navalny’s death and this is going to be a problem for the authorities,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “They will now start to crush everything that emerges.”

Across Russia, more than 340 people had been arrested at memorials for Navalny in the 24 hours…