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As protesters in several Russian cities took to the streets on Sunday to demand the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navaln, police blocked centers in Moscow and other cities.
Hundreds of policemen in riot gear have been on the streets of the capital since early Sunday morning, restricting pedestrian circulation in the city center.
Some unprecedented measures have also been taken: Moscow city authorities have closed several central metro stations and changed public transport routes.
After tens of thousands of people across the country protested last Saturday against the arrest of President Vladimir Putin’s opponent, opposition supporters have called demonstrations for the second weekend in a row.
The protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg are just beginning, but the independent monitoring group OVD-Info reports that at least 1,009 people have already been arrested across the country, including 142 protesters in Moscow. During the protests last weekend, more than 4,000 people were detained, according to the group. persons.
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 Putin’s instructions. 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 Navalna’s 30-day detention at a hearing at a police station in Khimki, a Moscow suburb, although Western governments are calling for his release. Officials explained that the meeting was held at the compound because Mr. Navaln allegedly did not have a valid COVID-19 test result.
“Indignant people”
Protests had already taken place in several cities on Sunday, including Vladivostok, a port city in the Far East, where several dozen people gathered in the central square, despite the fact that the police had closed it before the demonstration.
Several thousand have reportedly gathered in protest in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, even though the air temperature here is minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Helga Pirogova, a local politician and Navaln ally, told AFP that Sunday’s protest in Novosibirsk was potentially higher than a week ago.
“People are still outraged by what is happening,” he said.
In Moscow, protest organizers are announcing the latest changes to the grounds of the demonstration, while AFP reporters report that the police have already started detaining people, according to the deployment of police forces.
Hundreds of people march through the center, chanting “Freedom!” And “Putin’s thief!”
In Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, the police blocked Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s main street. An AFP correspondent reports that the center is full of police patrols.
“The entire center is closed,” said Natalia Grigorjeva, who came to the rally in St. Petersburg with her daughter. “And what is all this against, against your own people?”
Russian authorities have issued several warnings urging them not to attend unauthorized demonstrations and threatening to press criminal charges against the protesters.
Meanwhile, Navaln’s wife, Julia, posted a photo of her family on Instagram on Sunday, urging her followers to make sure their voices are heard.
“If we keep quiet, they will come tomorrow [suimti] any of us, ”he wrote.
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