Sochi residents try making Navalny's memorial at WW II victims' memorial

After the death of Alexei Navalny, Sochi townspeople began leaving in his memory at the memorial complex, where official events are held on the Fatherland Defender Day. After that, authorities moved the February 23 celebrations to another place; and the memorial was surrounded by a fence allegedly for repairs. Sochi residents believe that in this way officials decided to distinguish between the people's grief for Navalny and patriotic events in honour of February 23.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 20, activist Grigory Uchkurov told that Sochi residents brought flowers to the Navalny memorial, spontaneously formed at the monument to victims of political repressions, aiming to express their grief, but policemen regularly removed flowers away from the monument.

Traditionally, on the Fatherland Defender Day (February 23), people lay flowers at the main memorial complex in Sochi, where the Eternal Flame is on in memory of those who perished in the fight against fascism in 1941-1945. On February 16, when Alexei Navalny's death became known, carnations and his portraits appeared at the memorial, but were removed the next day. Then, they started some repairs there.

Irina, a local resident, said that on February 16, she and her girlfriend came to the Eternal Flame and put up Navalny's portrait with a black ribbon and carnations there. She believes that Alexei had fought for freedom and justice same as Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War (WW II).

"Unfortunately, everything was removed on February 17. There were no photos and no flowers," she has stated, noting that on February 23, the memorial was surrounded by a fence with an inscription stating that the site was being reconstructed. This led her to believe that authorities feared that Navalny's supporters could organize a mourning action on February 23.

"I think that every normal person sympathizes with the Navalny family and rejects lies about his allegedly natural death," said Svetlana, another Sochi resident.

She was surprised that for more than 30 years there had been no repairs of the memorial; and it was functioning, but after a major renovation in 2016, for some reason it suddenly "needed a new, even more thorough one."

Arkady, another Sochi resident, said that on February 23, he laid down carnations and placed portraits of Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny at the monument to the victims of political repressions. In his opinion, the celebrations on February 23, organized by authorities, are contrary to the situation in the country, since there are casualties at the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine.

He was also outraged by the fact that parents dressed even small children in military uniforms.