Moscow police reportedly ordered to ‘identify’ individuals bringing flowers to memorials honoring Navalny

Update: Irina Volk, Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman, denied reports that police officers were ordered to “identify” everyone bringing flowers to memorials honoring Alexey Navalny. Human rights activists also expressed their doubts about the authenticity of the document showing the order.

Grigory Sverdlin, the head of the human rights group Go by the Forest, posted a document by the Moscow police force ordering officers to be on 24/7 duty at two monuments to the Victims of Political Repression (the Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanka Square and the Wall of Grief) and to “identify” anyone who brings flowers to the monuments, starting on February 17.

The period of time the officers would be on around-the-clock duty at the monuments was not specified.

Those bringing flowers have been ordered to be identified “in order to prevent possible violations of the law and to identify individuals disrupting public order.” The officers are required to report to the Center for Combating Extremism on a daily basis.

The decree was dated February 17 and signed by the head of the Moscow police force, O.A. Baranov.