Russia jails Navalny protesters for laying flowers and candles

RUSSIA started jailing protesters yesterday for laying flowers and candles at makeshift memorials to Alexei Navalny.

Security services arrested more than 400 mourners marking the death of the opposition leader, who Western leaders say was murdered in an Arctic gulag.

Those detained were ordered to serve as many as 15 days in prison, rights groups said

The muted protests were the largest since September 2022 when Vladimir Putin ordered mobilisation for the war in Ukraine, and came ahead of rigged elections.

Navalny’s bruised body was located at a hospital morgue yesterday, according to a paramedic, as his family seeks answers about his death.

State doctors were flown in to conduct an autopsy for a report likely to please the Kremlin, opposition media reported.

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, posted a picture of them together touching heads in front of a stage, with the words: “I love you”. Today she is due to travel to Brussels to meet with EU foreign ministers, the bloc’s top diplomat said last night.

“EU Ministers will send a strong message of support to freedom fighters in Russia” and “honour” Navalny’s memory, he said.

Mrs Navalnaya, who had not seen her husband in two years, had said she held Russia’s president Vladimir Putin personally responsible and called on the international community to “unite and defeat this evil, terrifying regime”.

David Cameron yesterday signalled further sanctions on Russia over Navalny’s death.

Rishi Sunak told Ursula von der Leyen, the EU leader, that Britain would look to “hold those responsible within the Russian system to account” for Navalny’s death.

Police in Russia detained 401 people by Saturday night in dozens of cities, according to the OVD-INFO rights group.