US Ambassador to Russia Lynn Tracy stepped back from a makeshift memorial in Moscow to dissident Alexei Navalny on Sunday, as Russian authorities cracked down on citizens who demonstrated in the same way, AFP reported.

“Today, at the Solovetsky stone, we mourn the death of Oleksiy Navalny and other victims of political repression in Russia,” the diplomat wrote in Telegram. The message was accompanied by a photo of him in front of bouquets of flowers placed at the monument to the victims, located next to the famous headquarters on Lubyansk Square of the former Soviet KGB political militia (ed. – the predecessor of the current one). Russian special service FSB), notes Agerpres.

“We express our deepest condolences to the family, colleagues and sympathizers of Oleksiy Navalny. His strength is an inspiring example. We honor his memory,” the ambassador said.

On Friday and Saturday, Russian police made more than 400 arrests among those who, despite warnings, gathered in several cities to pay their respects to Navalny.

According to an official statement from the penitentiary service, Navalny died on Friday in a prison in the Arctic Yamal-Nenets region of Siberia.

On Sunday, his relatives did not have time to take possession of his lifeless body.

Leonid Volkov, a supporter of the dissident, said that it was not “death, but murder.”

The Kremlin did not make any statements about the death of the most famous opponent of President Vladimir Putin.