Svetlana, a Russian literary scholar, knew she was risking arrest when she emerged from the Moscow metro to join hundreds of others drawn to the Solovetsky Stone to mark the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
“I will never forget how I hid flowers under my jacket, exiting the metro station that was surrounded by police vans,” said Sveltana, declining to give her full name out of fear of potential retribution.
By Saturday evening, the monument to the victims of political repression was buried under a pile of flowers, with queues forming outside the nearest flower shops. Police allowed mourners to approach the stone one by one before demanding they leave immediately.