Over 380 have been detained as Russian police crackdown on mourners of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.

Mr Navalny, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin’s government serving a 19-year sentence over political offences, died in prison last week. 

The New York Times reported that a cleric who planned public prayer in honour of Mr Navalny was detained. Two men who had Navalny’s photo on their backpacks were arrested. 

Another man who laid a flower in the memorial of Mr Navalny told the newspaper that Russian police beat him up. 

At least 387 people have been detained by Russian police across 39 cities, according to OVD-Info, an independent human rights defence and media group in Russia tracking cases of those arrested and detained in connection with Navalny’s memorial.

Police crackdown on Mr Navalny’s mourners further exposes repression and human rights abuse in Mr Putin’s Russia.

Russian prison authorities issued a statement announcing the demise of Mr Navalny, 47. 

His sudden demise behind bars mirrors that of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenaries, who perished in a plane crash that killed all 10 people on board just months after opposing the Russian president last August.