Floral tributes to Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe who died Friday in a Russian penal colony, were removed overnight by groups of unknown people while police watched, videos on Russian social media channels show. Russia's prison service said in the Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence. On Saturday, police blocked access to a memorial in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and detained several people, OVD-Info said. Videos and photos shared on Russian social media channels showed flowers being cleared from monuments to victims of Soviet-era repressions across Russia. The news of Navalny's death comes less than a month before an election that will give Putin another six years in power.

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Persons: Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin's, Putin, ”, Nigel Gould, Davies, Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei, Putin’s, ” Navalnaya, Joe Biden, Washington doesn’t, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Navalny “, Dmitry Peskov, Kira Yarmysh Organizations: Russia's Federal Security Service, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Russia’s Federal, Service Locations: Russian, Russia, Siberian, Novosibirsk, Moscow, British, Belarus, Eurasia, London, Russia’s, Kharp, Germany, ”