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Hundreds of Russians in front of Alexei Navalny’s grave the day after his funeral
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Steph Deschamps / March 6, 2024
The mother of Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s main critic who died in prison in troubled circumstances, visited his grave on Saturday, the day after a funeral where thousands of Russians paid tribute to him, risking arrest. A small number of mourners also laid flowers on the grave as police presence continued at the cemetery, near the banks of the Moskova River.
Mr. Navalny, the fiercest critic of the Russian president in over a decade, died on February 16 at the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism”. The multiple trials brought against him had been widely denounced as a way of punishing him for his opposition to Vladimir Putin.
Already present when the coffin was laid to rest on Friday, the opponent’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, again visited his grave early Saturday morning, covered in flowers and wreaths, at Borisovo cemetery in southern Moscow. She was accompanied by Alla Abrossimova, the mother of Mr. Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya.
Yulia Navalnaya, the couple’s two children and Mr. Navalny’s brother live abroad and did not attend the funeral, where they could have been arrested for opposition to the Russian president. Alexei Navalny’s widow has pledged to continue her husband’s work and has repeatedly declared in recent days that Mr. Putin had “murdered” her.
On Friday, thousands of Navalny’s supporters had lined up for hours to pay their respects. As they streamed from a nearby church to the cemetery, some chanted “No to war!” and other slogans in support of Navalny, including calling Putin a “murderer” and calling for the “release of political prisoners”. Human rights NGO OVD-Info said Russian police had arrested at least 128 people taking part in tributes to Navalny in 19 cities on Friday.
The scenes of thousands of people marching in support of Mr. Navalny, demanding an end to Russia’s assault on Ukraine and castigating the Kremlin, have not been seen in Russia since the first days after Moscow ordered hundreds of thousands of troops to cross the border in late February 2022.
Since then, the Kremlin has cracked down hard on dissent and used strict new military censorship laws to prosecute hundreds of people who spoke out publicly against the offensive. This all-out crackdown, in addition to the partial mobilization in autumn 2022, has also driven many Russians abroad.
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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
World News
Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024
In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt.
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days.
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either.
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024
At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
“At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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