Law enforcers prevent Sochi residents and guests of from laying flowers to commemorate Alexei Navalny*

Sochi townspeople and guests of the resort city wanted to lay flowers at the monument to victims of political repressions and honour the memory of Alexei Navalny*, but law enforcers interfered and removed flowers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the convict, Alexei Navalny* died in the penal colony after his health condition had sharply worsened. The custody conditions in the colony have caused Navalny's* death, some social media users in Southern Russia have noted; others doubted that his death was due to natural reasons.

On February 16, after the news of Navalny's* death, Sochi residents and resort guests decided to commemorate him by laying flowers at the monument to victims of political repressions. However, they were met there by law enforcers, an action participant named Tamara has stated.

According to her story, a woman with a child laid a bouquet of flowers at the monument, but a law enforcer immediately jumped up and removed the flowers. When the woman asked why he did this, he replied: "This is not a cemetery," and told two other law enforcers to encircle the monument with tape so that no one could approach it.

"People were shocked by what they saw and the [law enforcer's] actions," Tamara has commented.

A guy named Alexei also wanted to lay flowers, but when he saw law enforcers, he changed his mind. "I thought to myself: how far one has to go to stand at the monument to victims of political repressions and not let anyone approach it," he has stated.

Alyona admitted that she decided not to go anywhere. "It's very painful ... It seems that the country and the entire civilized world are now wondering what we should do next," she said.

*Navalny's offices are recognized as extremist organizations and banned in Russia. Alexei Navalny is a founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (known as FBK), an NCO that is included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of NCOs performing functions of a foreign agent. The NCO is also recognized by a court as extremist and banned in the territory of Russia.