Overview
- Rights group OVD-Info reported three arrests in Saint Petersburg tied to second‑anniversary memorials, with courts ordering 10 to 14 days of administrative detention for leaving Navalny photos and slogans.
- At least 19 people were detained across Russian cities during commemorations that drew flower layings and small gatherings at monuments and cemeteries, including sites cordoned off by authorities.
- The United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands said tissue analyses led them to conclude Navalny was poisoned with the toxic compound epibatidine.
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected those conclusions as an information ploy and said it would comment only upon receiving laboratory data, while the Kremlin signaled it does not agree with the poisoning claims.
- Fifteen countries issued a joint statement urging a full investigation and the release of all political prisoners, citing UN reporting on worsening abuses and OVD-Info’s count of more than 1,700 people held for political reasons.