“[Putin] can kill him,but he can’t kill all opposition,” she said of Navalny’s death.
“We are standing here on Sydney’s streets to raise our voices for those who cannot stand on the streets”.
Pro-Putin protesters heckled the crowd in English as police supervised the dismantling of their truck-mounted stage.
“The rats are not allowed at the Russian consulate,” one said.
Pro-Navalny protestors held banners saying “Putin is a killer”.Credit:Rhett Wyman
The two groups continued to chant at each other in Russian for about half an hour.
“Russia,” shouted the pro-Putin camp.
“Russia but without Putin,” was the response that boomed through the street.
The pro-Russian protest was organised by Simeon Boikov,an Australian pro-Putin propagandist who goes by the online alias “the Aussie Cossack”.
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In September last year,Boikov was granted citizenship of the Russian Federation,according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin.
Thestaunch supporter of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been living in the Russian consulate in Sydney for more than a year,dodging arrest warrants,and had long dreamed of the Kremlin giving him citizenship.
On Saturday afternoon,Boikov posted a 2½-hour video to X titled “PRO RUSSIA RALLY LIVE From The Russian Consulate In Sydney”.
The video showed him standing on a stage next to a poster of Putin,saying “we are here today in our different ways with our different flags to express our opinion”.
He called the people in attendance a “small family”,saying “each of us are entitled to our opinion and to share it”.
Addressing the death of Navalny,whom he referred to as a “leader of the ethno-nationalist sect”,he said he did not wish to talk about it,but had to address it after being asked how he could attend the event in light of what happened.
“I oppose the censorship or incarceration of dissent – or peaceful dissent – anywhere in the world at any time,” he said.
“But if Alexei Navalvny were an Australian citizen in Australia today,he would be in an Australian jail for incitement for violence and for racial discrimination.”
Navalny and his many supporters expected he could die in prison,but it was not thought to happen so soon.
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In a statement,NSW Police said a “planned,authorised assembly has concluded in Sydney’s east” and “at the same time,an unauthorised assembly was dispersed,and the group left without incident”.
It did not specify which protest was authorised but said there were no arrests.
“The public assembly was held on Fullerton Street,Woollahra,with officers attached to Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command,assisted by Traffic and Highway Patrol Command,Operations Support Group,and the Central Metropolitan Region High Visibility Police,in attendance,” a statement said.
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