One-person protest in Murmansk: "His blood is on your hands Vova"

A rare sight in Russia nowadays, the one-person protest in Murmansk shortly after the news about Aleksei Navalny’s death became known Friday afternoon. 

“Aleksei Navalny is killed. His blood is on your hands Vova” - the protester’s handheld poster said. “Vova” is the short name for Vladimir [Putin].

It is not known to the Barents Observer who the protesting girl is, but the photo soon spread on social media channels in the Russian Arctic city. 

When Navalny visited Murmansk, in autumn 2017, hundreds of young people defied rain and warnings from FSB and teamed up for the public meeting.

In Arkhangelsk, people on Friday evening started to bring flowers to the monument to victims of the political repression.

Similar flower protests with strong-worded hand-written messages are reported from Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic and Petrozavodsk in the Republic of Karelia.

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Strong political comments are also coming from others in the Russian north.

“I know a whole generation of politicians who came into politics in the wake of protests after Navalny’s investigations,” says Viktor Vorobyov, a member of the regional parliament in the Komi Republic, 7x7 Journal reports on Twitter (X). 

“He had a real battle between goodness and neutrality: those who were not interested in politics began to participate in it due to Navalny,” Vorobyov says and adds:

“Navalny brought so many people into politics, this is his great merit.”

“Aleksei is one of the most talented and courageous persons I have known in Russia,” said Boris Nadezhdin as quoted on Telegram by Novaya Gazeta. The anti-war Putin rival was recently barred from the presidential race.

Russia’s first foreign minister under Boris Yeltsin, Andrey Kozyrev, writes on Twitter (X) that the murder of Aleksei Navalny is a wake-up call.

“Assassinating Navalny, an outstanding leader, and imprisoning Kara-Murza and other heroes advocating for truth and democracy are essential tools for sustaining Putin’s tyranny in Russia, along with his anti-American, anti-Western foreign policy.”

Former oligarch, now exile-opposition activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky also put the finger of blame directly to Putin: “If this is true, then, regardless of the formal reason, Vladimir Putin personally bears responsibility for the premature death, as he first authorized the poisoning of Alexei and then put him in prison,” Khodorkovsky said according to the Moscow Times. 

Independent news outlet Sota.vison reports from Moscow that people coming to Lubyanka are hindered by police forces to lay flowers at the location of the Solovetsky Stone, a well-known place for people to honor the victims of the political repression of the Soviet Union. 

Despite police warnings, several tens of people managed to lay flowers and photos of Navalny. EU Ambassador to Russia, Roland Galharague, was one of many that came with flowers.