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Opposition supporters Alexei Navalny called demonstrations across Russia on Saturday to demand his release, despite the risk of police repression and pressure from the authorities.
From Moscow to Vladivostok, the team of the famous anti-corruption activist who was the victim of an alleged poisoning last summer published meeting calls in 65 Russian cities.
In the capital Moscow, where opposition mobilization tends to be greatest, protesters are supposed to gather at 2 pm local time in Pushkin Square.
The police promised to “suppress without delay” any unauthorized gathering, which they consider “a threat to public order.”
For his part, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin condemned the “unacceptable” demonstrations at the height of the Crown epidemic.
Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, announced her intention to demonstrate in Moscow for her husband, who “never gives up.”
Since the authorities have not allowed these gatherings, protesters across Russia could face arrest and prosecution.
Major opposition meetings in Moscow in the summer of 2019 witnessed the arrest of thousands of peaceful protesters. Many of them were sentenced to prison for violent acts against the police, despite protests from NGOs.
As in 2019, the Russian police this week, before the mobilization, arrested Alexei Navalny’s main allies and on Friday, two of them were sentenced to short prison terms. In other regions, several of his movement coordinators were arrested after they called a demonstration on Saturday.
Navalny, 44, is in custody until at least February 15 and was arrested on his return Sunday from Germany, where he spent five months on a poison treatment trip.
Last August, he became seriously ill in Siberia and was transferred to an emergency hospital in Berlin after Russian intelligence subjected him to nerve gas poisoning, he said.
Three European laboratories have confirmed that he had been poisoned, but Moscow vehemently denies this and speaks of a conspiracy. Although he realized that he could be arrested, Navalny risked returning to Russia with his wife.
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