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“The United States strongly condemns the use of harsh tactics against protesters and journalists this weekend in Russian cities,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
“We demand that the Russian authorities release all those detained for exercising their universal rights and that Alexei Navalny be released immediately and unconditionally,” Price added.
The Russian critic of the regime has been taken into custody in Russia for failure to report. Police in riot gear stormed a demonstration on Friday, dislodging hundreds of protesters by truck. Police in riot gear stormed a demonstration on Friday, dislodging hundreds of protesters by truck.
Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny had called on people to demonstrate against President Vladimir Putin. Among those arrested was his wife, Julia Navalnaja, who, like many other protesters, was released during the day.
Thousands demonstrate against Putin
England condemns
British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab also condemned “the use of force by the Russian authorities against peaceful protesters and journalists” and called for the release of all those detained after the demonstrations. Write Sky News.
Tens of thousands of people, many of them young, followed Navalny’s call in dozens of cities less than a week after he was arrested on his return from Germany.
In Moscow, protesters flocked to Pushkin Square and the side streets of the center. Heavily armed rebel police encountered snowballs, but large numbers of protesters were arrested and beaten with batons.
I tried to enter the National Assembly
– Criminals in uniform
– The criminals in uniform protect the criminals at the helm, says Vera Spivakova, 71-year-old retiree, who believes that “Putin and the oligarchs” are scared.
OVD Info, which monitors opposition protests, said early Saturday that at least 2,662 people were arrested in around 90 Russian cities. At least 900 of them were taken to Moscow, 350 to St. Petersburg.
Later on Saturday, several hundred protesters gathered outside the high security prison where Navalny is sitting and shouting “freedom.” Several of them were beaten with batons and arrested.
Extensive network
Navalny’s supporters apparently were not intimidated and have called for new demonstrations next weekend, according to the AP news agency.
Navalny and his anti-corruption campaign have built an extensive support network despite being ignored by the government opposition and state media.
– The situation is getting worse. It is a total anarchy. If we remain silent, it will last forever, says protester Andrei Gorjov in Moscow.
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Søreide worried
The mass arrests of peaceful protesters in Moscow and other Russian cities are cause for concern, says Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide (H).
– They must be released immediately and we hope that Russia will comply with its international obligations to guarantee freedom of expression and assembly, says Søreide.
EU Chancellor Josep Borrell apologizes for “massive arrests, disproportionate use of force and cuts in telephone and Internet connections.”
It may have been 20,000
Moscow police, known for downplaying the protests, said 4,000 people showed up. The AFP news agency estimates that around 20,000 demonstrated in the capital and another 10,000 in St. Petersburg. In that case, the protests are the largest in Russia since 2019, when Navalny’s supporters demonstrated demanding free local elections.
Several of Navalny’s employees were arrested and fined before the demonstrations.
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Lots of police
Speakers in Pushkin Square were warned that the rally was illegal and protesters were asked to stay away due to the corona pandemic.
Reporters speak of seriously injured protesters who withdrew after clashing with police. Videos on social media show security forces attacking protesters with clubs.
Russian authorities say they are investigating the violence against the police.
Several thousand people also demonstrated in Yekaterinburg and in Yakutsk, a port city in the extreme east of Siberia, where the temperature was as low as 50 degrees Celsius, 13 people were arrested.
There were also demonstrations in Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Irkutsk.
Taken at passport control
Navalny was already arrested at passport control when he returned to Russia last weekend for the first time since he was poisoned and evacuated to Berlin in August last year.
He himself has always claimed that the Russian authorities were behind the poisoning, and laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden have determined that he was exposed to the Russian poison Novitsjok.
Navalny is charged with violating the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence and is in pretrial detention until February 15.
