177 detained across Russia at rallies in memory of Navalny

At least 177 people were detained at events in Russia on Friday and Saturday in memory of Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most formidable domestic opponent, who died on Friday, according to rights group OVD-Info.

Navalny, a 47-year-old former lawyer, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk at the "Polar Wolf" Arctic penal colony, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, authorities said.

OVD-Info, which reports on freedom of assembly in Russia, said more than 177 people in 21 cities across Russia had been detained at spontaneous rallies and vigils as of 1030 GMT on Saturday.

OVD-Info said that 99 people had been detained in St Petersburg and 11 in Moscow,the country's two largest cities, where Navalny's mostly educated and urban supporters had been concentrated.

The group also reported individual arrests in smaller cities across Russia, from the border city of Belgorod, where seven were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on Thursday, to Vorkuta, an Arctic mining outpost once a centre of the Stalin-era gulag labour camps.

"In each police department, there may be more detainees than in the published lists," OVD-Info said. "We publish only the names of those people about whom we have reliable knowledge and whose names we can publish."

Reuters could not immediately verify the count.

The hundreds of flowers and candles laid in Moscow on Friday to honour Navalny's memory were mostly taken away overnight in black bags. Russians paying their respects spoke of their despair and apathy after Navalny's death.