Julia Navalnaya*, who attended the memorial opening, wrote about the ceremony on her accounts. The initiative to install the monument belongs to the Associação de russos livres (Association of Free Russians).
Association representative Timofey Bugayevsky noted that «Vladimir Putin, recognized by the International Criminal Court as a war criminal and deemed an illegitimate dictator by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, is involved in this murder as part of his strategy to eliminate opponents and plunder Russia over many years». Bugayevsky hopes that the memory of Alexei Navalny will «inspire Russians to fight for freedom against tyranny».
«A huge thank you to the initiative group that achieved this, and to the municipal authorities of Lisbon who approved everything. Most importantly, thank you to all the wonderful people around the world who remember Alexei and want to immortalize his memory», wrote Julia Navalnaya.
Supporters of Navalny in New York, Helsinki, Wiesbaden, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, and Antwerp also proposed initiatives to commemorate Alexei Navalny.
In The Hague (Netherlands), a petition proposing to rename Andries Bicker Street, where the Russian embassy is located, to Alexei Navalny Street gathered over 85,000 signatures, but The Hague authorities refused.
On the 17th, Associação de russos livres will organize a march from the memorial to Restauradores Square, joining the international solidarity action of opponents of Putin and the war in Ukraine. «We are periodically accused of betraying the homeland, but we are fighting not against Russia, but against the Putin regime, which usurps it and destroys Russian society», said Bugayevsky.
* Included in the list of «terrorists and extremists».