Amid the snow falling in many Russian cities and with the constant presence of police, hundreds of Russians are leaving a flower in memory of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s political rival who died suddenly on Friday in a penal colony in Siberia.

BREAKING: People are laying flowers at Moscow’s Solovetsky Stone following the death of the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Latest updates: https://t.co/xWeJKfkPVI

? Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/PWmfw9v0ve

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 16, 2024

Navalny was the president’s most prominent political opponent, perhaps the only one who could bring thousands of protesters into the street.

In Moscow, people line up to lay flowers at the Solovetsky Stone to honor the memory of Alexei Navalny.

Police officers and security forces in plain clothes are also at the memorial with more heading to the site.

As Novaya Gazeta writes, the police are letting people to… pic.twitter.com/WGsMatXh4d

— Natalka (@NatalkaKyiv) February 16, 2024

Now they are coming down even after his death.

Citizens are silently protesting at the memorial located a little more than a kilometer from the Kremlin, outside the building of the FSB, the KGB’s successor agency.

People in Moscow today lining up to lay flowers for Navalny, the only form of silent protest the state will tolerate today. You can see how shell-shocked they are pic.twitter.com/9gFX86pHko

— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) February 16, 2024