Tributes to Alexei Navalny, Putin’s greatest foe, removed from Russian cities as police look on

By EMMA BURROWS
Associated Press

Floral tributes to Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe who died Friday in a Russian penal colony, were removed overnight by groups of unknown people while police watched, videos on Russian social media channels show. More than 100 people were detained in eight cities across Russia according to the OVD-Info monitoring group after they came to lay flowers in memory of Navalny. The news of Navalny’s death comes less than a month before an election that will give Putin another six years in power. It brought renewed criticism of the Kremlin leader who has cracked down on all opposition at home.