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While authorities are using arrest pressure and criminal investigation tactics to increase pressure on the opposition, Navalno’s team has called for protests to resume across the country ahead of the opposition leader’s trial, which should start on February 2.
The first protests took place in the Far East, including the port city of Vladivostok, where several dozen protesters gathered in the central square of the city, despite the fact that the police had closed it before the demonstration.
“The desire to live in a free country is stronger than the fear of arrest,” Andrejs, a 25-year-old student, told an AFP correspondent, without wanting to give his name.
AFP photos from Vladivostok show dozens of protesters fleeing the police, as well as a group of protesters dancing in a circle.
Russian authorities have issued several warnings urging them not to attend unauthorized demonstrations and threatening to press criminal charges against the protesters.
According to independent observers, at least 261 people were arrested in more than a dozen cities before the planned start of the demonstration in Moscow, where the largest crowd usually gathers.
Unprecedented measures have also been taken: Moscow police have said that seven metropolitan stations will be temporarily closed and pedestrian traffic will be restricted in the center of the capital.
Moscow authorities have also announced that some restaurants and shops in the city center will be closed and, as in the center of the capital, public transport routes will be changed.
Similar measures were taken in St. Petersburg: several metro stations were closed, entrances to the city center were blocked, and pedestrians were not allowed on the main Nevsky Prospekt.
Police arrested Navalna, 44, at one of Moscow’s airports on January 17, less than an hour after the opposition returned to Russia from Germany, where he was being treated for a nerve paralyzing substance after the poisoning last summer. A critic of the Kremlin claims that the Federal Security Service (FSB) tried to poison him on the orders of Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin denies any connection to the incident.
The Russian Prison Service (FSIN) later said it had arrested Navalna for violating the terms of a probation sentence imposed on him in a 2014 fraud case. The opposition itself considers the case politically motivated.
The court ordered that Mr. Navalna be detained for 30 days at a hearing at the Khimki police station, a Moscow suburb. Officials explained that the meeting was held at the compound because Mr. Navaln allegedly did not have a valid COVID-19 test result.
The planned rally in Moscow on Sunday will be held at the headquarters of the FSB, Russia’s main security agency.
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