Mourners in Moscow mark two-year anniversary of Alexei Navalny’s death

Mourners gathered in Moscow on Monday to mark two years since the death in custody of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, under the shadow of a Kremlin crackdown and just two days since a new analysis reinforced suspicions that he was murdered.

Mr Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16 2024 while serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.

His death at the age of 47 left the Russian opposition leaderless.

Mr Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and his mother-in-law, Alla Abrosimova, were among the mourners laying flowers on his grave. A mound of bouquets rose above the drifts of snow that blanketed Moscow’s Borisovsky Cemetery.

Representatives from several European embassies also paid their respects, watched by a high security presence. Later, a small choir gathered to sing by Mr Navalny’s graveside.

Addressing the crowd, Lyudmila Navalnaya restated her belief that her son was killed by the Russian authorities, a scenario which has also been backed by several European countries in recent days.

“We knew that our son did not simply die in prison,” she said. “He was murdered.”

The Kremlin has denied the allegations, saying that Mr Navalny died of natural causes.

Flowers were also laid at the memorial to the victims of political repression in St Petersburg. Access to the site was later blocked with temporary fences, local news outlets reported.

The anniversary coincides with the release of a joint statement by five European countries, which said that Mr Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs.

The foreign ministries of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that analysis in European labs of samples taken from Mr Navalny’s body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine”.

The neurotoxin secreted by dart frogs in South America is not found naturally in Russia, they said.

A joint statement said: “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.”

In a written tribute to Mr Navalny on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron also linked the Kremlin with the opposition leader’s death.

“Two years ago, the world learned of the death of Alexei Navalny. I pay tribute to his memory,” Mr Macron wrote on social media.

“I said then that I believed his death said everything about the Kremlin’s weakness and its fear of any opponent. It is now clear that this death was premeditated.

“Truth always prevails, while we await justice to do the same.”

Moscow has vehemently denied its involvement in Mr Navalny’s death, saying that the politician had become unwell after going for a walk.

When asked about the allegations by journalists on Monday, presidential spokesman said that the Kremlin does “not accept such accusations”.

“We consider them biased and unfounded. In fact, we resolutely reject them,” he said.

Mr Navalny’s closest allies, as well as other key members of Russia’s opposition, now continue their fight from exile.

Many have been handed lengthy prison sentences in absentia in Russia and are unable to return home. Some have been designated “terrorists and extremists” by the authorities, a designation that was also applied to Mr Navalny in January 2022.

In a statement to mark Mr Navalny’s death, Russian members of the Council of Europe’s human rights body, Pace, said his death was “an inevitable link in a chain of systemic crimes by the Kremlin regime against its own citizens and the citizens of foreign states”.

“Alexei Navalny gave his life for a free Russia,” the statement said. “We are obliged to ensure that his death was not in vain.”