In the morning, several dozen people came to Alexei Navalny's grave at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, including Alexei and Yulia Navalny's* mothers, Lyudmila Navalnaya and Alla Abrosimova, as well as Tatyana and Valery Yashins.
As reported by SOTAvision**, four National Guard officers at the entrance demanded visitors show their bags and even bouquets. About a dozen Center “E” employees closely monitored the attendees, filming everyone on their phones. A memorial prayer for the deceased was held at the politician's grave. The ceremony was once again conducted by priest Dmitry Safronov — a former priest of the Moscow Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on Lyshchikova Hill. In April 2024, he was banned from serving for three years due to conducting memorial services at Navalny's grave.
All day long, people came to the Borisovskoye Cemetery, bringing flowers, ducks, poems, and a woman brought a Rick and Morty poster — his favorite cartoon — to the politician's grave.
In other cities, people visited monuments to victims of political repression. In major cities, police were on duty almost everywhere. In St. Petersburg, police detained a journalist from RusNews, who was later released without a report.
In Novosibirsk, police filmed people who came to the monument to victims of repression on Navalny's birthday, checked their documents, and stated the inadmissibility of illegal actions. After that, they detained eight people, including former deputy Svetlana Kaverzina** and journalist Sergey Volkov. Almost three hours later, the Novosibirsk residents were released from the police department without reports.
Memorial events on Alexei Navalny's birthday will take place worldwide.
* Included in the list of “terrorists and extremists”.
** Recognized as “foreign agents” in Russia.
Photo: RusNews, SOTAvision