Supporters and relatives of Aleksei Navalny are marking what would have been the late Russian opposition leader's 48th birthday on June 4 at events organized abroad, while in Russia people pay their respects at his grave in Moscow and at memorials in other cities despite warnings about unauthorized gatherings.
Navalny's death was announced on February 16 at the Polar Wolf prison in Russia's Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year term on extremism and other charges that he and his supporters had rejected as politically motivated.
A memorial service for Navalny was held in Berlin, in the presence of his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, on June 4, while later in the day, his associates announced a concert under the title "Hello, this is Navalny," with performances by artists who oppose the war and President Vladimir Putin's regime, including AIGEL, Casta, and Noize MC.
In Moscow, people left flowers at his grave at the Borisov Cemetery, where he is buried.
Navalny had been subjected to months of extremely harsh treatment in prison, but officials claimed his death was prompted by "natural causes" and then refused to release his body to his family for about a week.
He was incarcerated in January 2021 immediately upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he had undergone months of treatment for a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning that he believed was carried out by Russian security operatives at the behest of Putin.
His death was called a murder by Navalnaya, while U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have accused Moscow of being responsible for the death of its most feared domestic critic.
His March 1 funeral in Moscow, attended by thousands of people, became the largest manifestation of dissent with Putin's regime since the start of Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The Berlin service was officiated by Bishop Christian Staeblein, the leader of the Berlin-Brandenburg Evangelical Church.
"Many of [his] 47 years were spent fighting, searching for freedom and justice, repeatedly facing imprisonment and jail, harassment, mental torture, and physical humiliation, destruction, poisoning, making him sick and wounded. Despite all this -- and in spite of his own diversions -- he stood for freedom," Staebelin said in his address.
"No one can take this dignity away. Not in the trials, not in death," he added.
Despite warnings by the authorities against unlawful gatherings and other commemorations that could be considered as breaking the law, spontaneous events are expected in a number of Russian cities in the corruption crusader's memory.
In Novosibirsk, the monument to victims of political repression, where a spontaneous memorial arose in the days after Navalny's death, was fenced off by police with warning lines.
In Syktyvkar, Perm, and Berezniki, according to Telegram channel 7x7, police paid visits to the homes of activists on June 3.
In Vladivostok, Yoshkar-Ola, and Samara, people on June 4 laid flowers in places where spontaneous memorials arose in February.
Russian authorities have included the organizations and structures created by Navalny on their "extremist" list, and his former associates continue to suffer persecution.