People lay floral tributes in Russia to Putin foe Alexei Navalny • FRANCE 24 English

Well we’re joined here in the studio by France 24’s Douglas Herbert and we’ve been seeing in the last half hour the the uh people filing uh past that monument in the heart of Moscow in lubianka square it’s basically the biggest Act of defiance we’ve seen in a

Way since the funeral of Mel Gorbachev in Russia and and I will also underline it’s the only sort of possible Act of defiance uh given the the climate in today’s Russia where where at you know outright protest is has been made all but impossible the early days after the

The uh the the fullscale invasion of Ukraine we did see Street protests which were CRI quickly snuffed out by uh by Putin’s police and since then we’ve been seen almost no real public Gatherings so the way that people sort of uh pay their respects to um a highly respected figure

Remember Alexa naali uh is even though the Russian State media did all it could to sort of uh you know make sure that he was as far removed from the public eye as possible and transferred him to a to a penal colony 40 kmers North of the

Arctic Circle try to get him out of the public eye he was a known and a household name across Russia even if he wasn’t seen all the time on public media he was seen a lot on the private media networks Russians know who they are and

I will just note that you know you see these images right now on the screen um and I believe uh these are what you were referring to the images of people coming with flowers uh to the soletski um uh Stone which is outside lubianka lubianka obviously a very symbolic place in

Moscow because it where the secret police was it is the site of the former KGB headquarters um so um it is you know this is the monument to uh to victims of political repression the fact that people are are going there this many people I guess you a could argue safety

And numbers I guess you could also argue because this has become this is such an international story Alexa Nali is a worldwide internationally known name the police right now are letting this happen also because it’s Moscow Moscow is in the spotlight but I will note FIS there

Are other cities right now where there have been reports across Telegram and other social media platforms uh where you have similar types of show displays tributes n at at these types of monuments which have in some cases cordin off by police I don’t know if we

Have it there was one in the city of tomsk in Russia uh there was a similar Monument Monument to victims of political repression the police put a blockade a cordon around it so ostensibly to prevent people from being able to get there as we see they are

Able to do apparently here in in Moscow also in Nova there was uh there were people showing up to a to a similar type of Monument to pay their respects I believe that the images you’re seeing there also taken from telegram I’m not sure which account but they are in St

Petersburg remember all of the Cities across Russia now do have these types of monuments uh so I’m not sure exactly what’s happening there I believe that is St Petersburg but just to underscore that it is perhaps you have to sort of triple underline it when you see anyone

Showing up and coming out in these numbers to bring flowers to pay respects to an opposition figure given the context of today’s Russian Society where Civil Society has beaten a very Hasty Retreat if not snuff out together these are brave people coming out in some places I’ll just not in some places

We’ve had reports of police taking the names and details of people showing up an obvious intimidation tactic right and was mentioned his death on Rosio one the the state television brast it was mentioned uh they did which is notable of itself because it shows that you can’t ignore Alexa navali right he is

The most prominent opposition figure everyone in Russia knows he’s also known outside of Russia they they see as being weaponized I will note though I’m not sure if we have it to show our viewers but the front page of the website of the state controlled news agency the main

News agency R noest we don’t have it but there were about 20 headlines on that main website as of 15 minutes ago not a single one had the name Alexa Nal on it they were all about on other on other topics

Moscow residents laid flower tributes on Friday (February 16) after the news broke of opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in a Russian prison. FRANCE 24’s Douglas Herbert gives his analysis.
#Navalny #Europe #Russia

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24 comments

  2. Julian Assange is currently detained in a British jail, which is indeed a matter of great concern. Surprisingly, the Western media seems to pay little attention to this significant development.

  7. Navalny was never a serious opposition to Putin. His support numbers were not that high. But the Western leaders and their media sycophants built him into a big hero, simply because he fit their anti Russia agenda. But prominent blogger and journalist Gonzalo Lira, who criticized Zelensky, was arrested and died in prison. But not a peep about his fate from the Western media.

  17. Novalny's death does not benefit Russia or Putin. It's obvious! And how everything was organised and paid for by the West in time. Disgusting.

  23. Think when you put flowers for someone who died and after that they put you in war to punish you, I feel so lucky that I live in a country where I have free speak and I can grief without punishment. For me it shows weaknes when you are afraid for humans
    with brain who have dreams. R.I.P. 🕯🌹

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