MOSCOW (Reuters) – Dozens of Russians flocked to Alexei Navalny’s grave in Moscow on Sunday to symbolically cast their vote for the late opposition politician on the last day of Russia’s presidential election, TV footage showed.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest domestic critic, died last month in an Arctic prison. His allies accuse Putin of having him murdered, something the Kremlin denies. Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, said Navalny had died of natural causes.
Navalny was buried at the Borisovo cemetery in southern Moscow on March 1, two weeks before the start of a presdential election widely expected to easily hand Putin another six years in power.
On Sunday, video footage posted on social media by the Novaya Gazeta Europe news outlet and other media, showed dozens of Navalny supporters at his grave on which they had placed various tributes.
“We choose you,” said one tribute. Official voting slips which had been amended to include Navalny’s name on the list of candidates with a tick next to it were also visible.
Supporters were shown placing flowers on Navalny’s grave, which was already piled high with flowers.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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