A total of one hundred people were arrested at several rallies in Russia in memory of opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in prison on Friday, the specialized NGO OVD-Info said on Saturday.
According to the count posted on its website and updated Saturday morning, “more than 101 people were arrested in ten cities,” mostly in large urban centers.
About 60 people were arrested and detained in Saint Petersburg, about fifteen in Nizhny Novgorod and about ten in Moscow.
Already on Friday afternoon, the capital's authorities warned residents against “unauthorized” demonstrations after the death of the Kremlin's number one opponent was announced.
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But in the evening, people lined up in several Russian cities to lay flowers at monuments commemorating political dissidents, even as arrests had already been reported.
In Russia, any public criticism of power is punished with prison.
Alexei Navalny, 47, served a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism” in a remote Arctic colony in very difficult conditions.
His disappearance after three years in prison and a poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin deprived an already anemic opposition of its figurehead, a month before the presidential election that was supposed to once again consolidate Vladimir Putin's power.