Alexei Navalny: Hundreds arrested in protests in Russia

Hundreds of people have been detained as police try to stop national protests in Russia in support of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, said she had been detained at a protest in the capital Moscow, where officers were breaking up the demonstrations.

Thousands of people have already participated in demonstrations in the Russian Far East.

Navalny, the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, called for protests after his arrest last weekend.

He was arrested on January 17 after flying back to Moscow from Berlin, where he was recovering from a near-fatal nerve agent attack in Russia last August.

Upon his return, he was immediately arrested and convicted of violating the conditions of probation. He says it is a fabricated case designed to silence him and asked his supporters to protest.

Several of Navalny’s closest associates, including a spokeswoman, were also detained in the run-up to Saturday’s protests.

Before the rallies, the Russian authorities had promised a harsh crackdown, and the police said that any unauthorized demonstrations and provocations would be “suppressed immediately”.

OVD Info, an independent NGO that monitors the demonstrations, said that so far more than 800 people had been detained in protests across the country.

Thousands of people are currently attending a protest in central Moscow’s Pushkin Square, where police have erected metal barriers to deter protesters.

Russia’s Interior Ministry said 4,000 had turned up in Moscow, but opposition sources say it may reach 15,000.

A witness told Reuters that at least 100 people had already been detained there.

Among them is Lyubov Sobol, a prominent Navalny aide who had already been fined for urging the Russians to join the protests. She tweeted a video of the police abruptly pulling her away from an interview with journalists.

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, also said she was being detained by the police in the same protest, and posted an image on her Instagram account with the caption: “Apologies for the poor quality. Very bad light in the police van.” .

Several of Navalny’s key aides had already been taken into police custody in the days leading up to Saturday’s protests, including his spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh.

Leading Navalny activists are also detained in the cities of Vladivostok, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar.

Moscow’s Pushkin Square is packed with anti-government protesters. “Freedom for Navalny,” they yell, “Putin, go!”

There are long lines of riot police around the square and on Moscow’s main street, Tverskaya, less than a mile from the Kremlin.

“This is an illegal meeting,” the police announce over loudspeakers, “please go.

There is a cacophony of car horns honking by drivers passing through the plaza, a show of support for the protesters.

A driver had hung a pair of boxer shorts out of his car window, a reference to Mr. Navalny’s poisoning. The nerve agent Novichok was allegedly applied to Alexei Navalny’s underwear.

One woman in the crowd told me that she decided to participate in the protest because “Russia has become a prison camp” and to support the country’s most prominent opposition figure, who is behind bars.

Russia’s Far East saw some of the first protests on Saturday, with people braving the extreme cold in a show of support for Navalny.

Attendees of a small protest in the Siberian city of Yakutsk saw temperatures drop to as low as -50C (-58F).

An independent news source, Sota, said that at least 3,000 people had joined a demonstration in the city of Vladivostok, but local authorities put the figure at 500.

AFP footage showed riot police in Vladivostok crashing into a crowd and hitting some of the protesters with batons.

Meanwhile, there were reports of disruptions in mobile phone and internet coverage in Russia on Saturday, although it is not known if this is related to the protests.

The social media app TikTok had been inundated with videos promoting the demonstrations and sharing viral messages about Navalny.

In response, Russia’s official media watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that TikTok remove any information that “encourages minors to act illegally,” threatening hefty fines.

The Russian Ministry of Education has also told parents not to allow their children to attend any demonstrations.

In an effort to gain support ahead of the protests, Navalny’s team released a video about a luxury resort on the Black Sea that they say belongs to President Putin, an accusation denied by the Kremlin.

The video has been viewed by more than 65 million people.