Russian courts have sentenced dozens of people detained at events commemorating Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to short prison sentences, official court announcements showed, with 154 sentenced in Saint Petersburg alone.
Details of rulings published by the city's court service on Saturday and Sunday showed 154 people had been given jail time of up to 14 days for violating Russia's strict anti-protest laws.
Rights groups and independent media outlets reported a handful of similar sentences in other cities across the country.
The 47-year-old Kremlin critic died on Friday at the Arctic prison colony where he was being held on charges widely seen as retribution for his campaigning against President Vladimir Putin.
Police over the weekend arrested hundreds of Russians in dozens of cities who came to lay flowers and light candles in his honour at memorials to victims of Stalin-era repressions.
Anti-Kremlin demonstrations or public shows of opposition to the regime are effectively illegal in Russia under strict military censorship rules and laws against unapproved rallies.
Police and men in plain clothes patrolled sites in dozens of Russian cities where people had gathered to commemorate Navalny over the weekend.
There were several reports of them removing the pop-up memorials overnight, and footage showed hooded men scooping up flowers into bin bags on a bridge next to the Kremlin where another leading Putin critic, Boris Nemtsov, was killed in 2015.
- Putin silent -
The news of Navalny's death, which came just a month before Putin is set to secure another six-year term in the Kremlin, triggered an outpouring of grief and anger among his supporters at home and abroad.
Russian authorities had still not given Navalny's mother or lawyers access to his body on Sunday, enraging his backers who had earlier called the Russian state "killers" trying to "cover their tracks."
Putin has not commented on the death of his most vocal critic and the Kremlin has not said anything since Friday evening when it criticised Western leaders for saying they held Putin responsible.
Tributes to Navalny, who narrowly survived a poisoning attack in 2020 only to fly back to Russia months later knowing he would be jailed, continued to pour in Sunday.
"Alexei Navalny wanted one very simple thing: for his beloved Russia to be just a normal country," Leonid Volkov, his chief of staff and one of his closest aides wrote on the X social media site.
"And for this Vladimir Putin killed him. Poisoned, imprisoned, tortured and killed him."
Navalny's widow to meet EU ministers
Alexei Navalny's widow will meet European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, EU officials announced.
The 47-year-old opposition leader died in an Arctic prison on Friday after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he would welcome Yulia Navalnaya to the bloc's Foreign Affairs Council on Monday.
"EU Ministers will send a strong message of support to freedom fighters in Russia" and "honour" Navalny's memory, he added on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
Navalny was Russia's most prominent opposition leader and garnered a huge following as he campaigned against corruption under President Vladimir Putin.
In the hours following the announcement that her husband had died, Navalnaya, who had not seen him in two years, said she held Putin personally responsible.
She called on the international community to "unite and defeat this evil, terrifying regime".
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Navalnaya's words "will make us feel the threat that weighs on Russian citizens and on every region of our Europe", where "violence, brutality, and war have been shamefully and irresponsibly returned".
- Lula urges caution -
While many Western European leaders have directly or indirectly blamed Putin for Navalny's death, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cautioned against rushing to judgement.
Speaking to reporters in Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit, Lula said it was important to avoid "speculation" and await the results of an autopsy.
"If you judge now and say I-don't-know-who ordered the killing and it wasn't them, afterwards you have to apologise. Why the rush to accuse?"
Navalny could have been sick or had a health problem, said Lula, warning against "trivialising" accusations of murder.
Lula has faced criticism for being soft on Putin, his fellow leader in the BRICS group -- which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but was recently expanded to include several other emerging powers.
The Brazilian president has been critical of the US and European responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying Kyiv shares the blame for the conflict and refusing to join international sanctions on Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Western leaders on Friday of "absolutely unacceptable" and "hysterical" reactions to Navalny's death.
In several cities around Europe, Navalny supporters continued to pay tribute to him Sunday.
In Germany, people laid flowers and candles at a memorial in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin.
In Romania, a similar tribute appeared outside the Russian embassy in Bucharest.