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BERLIN/VILNIUS (Reuters) – Hundreds of demonstrators, many of them Russian immigrants, gathered in cities across Europe and abroad on Friday to express their anger over the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. .
They often gathered outside the Russian embassy, chanting slogans criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin, holding signs calling him a “murderer” and demanding accountability.
Mr. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable domestic opponent, died on Friday after losing consciousness while taking a walk in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 30-year sentence, prison authorities said.
In Berlin, a crowd of 500 to 600 people, police estimated, gathered on the city’s Unter den Linden Boulevard and chanted in a mix of Russian, German and English.
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“Putin in The Hague,” some chanted, referring to the International Criminal Court, which is investigating possible war crimes in Ukraine.
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Police used fencing to block the road between the Russian embassy and the crowd.
“Alexei Navalny is the leader of the Russian opposition and we have always held hope in his name,” said a Russian man wearing a blue and white anti-war flag, identified only as Ilya. He came forward and spoke.
Protesters placed flowers and candles near Navalny’s portrait in Lithuania, which once fled Moscow but is now a member of NATO and the European Union and home to a sizable migrant community. Ta.
“Everything is surreal because he was always with us,” said Pussy Riot activist Lyusha Shteyn, 26, who has lived in Vilnius since leaving Russia in 2022. “None of us yet understand what happened.”
In Russia itself, prosecutors warned Russians not to take part in large-scale protests in Moscow. Police watched as several Russians came to lay roses and carnations at a memorial to victims of Soviet repression in the shadow of the former KGB headquarters.
Rights group OVD-Info, which reports on freedom of assembly in Russia, said more than 100 people were detained at a vigil for Navalny. Reuters could not immediately confirm this report.
Groups also gathered in Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sofia, Geneva and The Hague.
More than 100 demonstrators held placards calling Putin a war criminal outside the Russian embassy in London, and hundreds observed a moment of silence in Lisbon. Pavel Yelizarov, a 28-year-old Russian living in Portugal, said Navalny was a “symbol of freedom and hope.”
Speaking near the Russian embassy in Paris, where about 100 demonstrators had gathered, Natalia Morozov said Navalny was also a symbol of hope for her.
“It’s hard for me to express my emotions because I’m really upset,” Morozov said. “Now we have no hope for a beautiful Russia in the future.”
If Navalny’s death is confirmed, the scattered groups opposed to President Putin will be left without representatives and no obvious candidate who can channel their discontent over Navalny’s death into mass protests.
Navalny’s wife Yulia was also in Munich on Friday, where a wake was also held. She told the Munich Security Conference that she could not be sure of her husband’s death because “President Putin and his government… lie constantly” but said that if confirmed, “they will be responsible”. He said he wanted people to know.
On the other side of the Atlantic, at a vigil outside the Russian consulate in New York City, Violeta Soboleva said she volunteered for Mr. Navalny’s presidential campaign in 2017.
“I truly believed that he was the one who could lead Russia to a better future,” said Soboleva, a Russian who is pursuing a doctorate in New York. “And now we have lost this future forever.”
(Rachel More in Berlin, Andrius Sitas in Vilnius, Tassilo Hummel and Yiming Wu in Paris, Sergio Gonçalves and Miguel Pereira in Lisbon, Alexandra Michalska in New York, Hannah Ellison and Peter Nichols in London) Report (written by Tashiro Hummel and Rosalba) O’Brien; edited by Barbara Lewis and Cynthia Osterman)
Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.
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