Protests see opposition leader jailed
RUSSIA: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed for 30 days after mass rallies against President Vladimir Putin were held across the country.
A Moscow court found Navalny guilty yesterday of repeatedly breaking regulations on the organisation of demonstrations, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmish said.
Protests against Putin were held in more than 100 cities and towns across the country on the patriotic Russia Day holiday, but Navalny was arrested at his home in Moscow before he could join them.
Protesters were detained in dozens of cities, from far eastern Vladivostok to westernmost Kaliningrad, according to anticorruption watchdog OVD-INFO, though there were conflicting reports of exact numbers.
OVD-INFO said more than 700 people were taken into custody in Moscow and more than 500 were detained in St Petersburg. State media put the number detained in Moscow at 200.
Navalny, who was also detained at a similar protest in March, has sought to challenge Putin in next year’s presidential election, but he appears unlikely to be allowed on the ballot because of a controversial past conviction on corruption charges.
The Moscow protest occurred in the same location as a festival for the Russia Day holiday, which celebrates the transformation of Soviet Russia into today’s country. Moscow authorities said about 200,000 people attended the festival on a central city thoroughfare, Tverskaya St, which leads to the Kremlin.
Police formed several cordons to disperse the protesters, detaining those who resisted. The crowd of thousands chanted slogans such as ‘‘Russia without Putin!’’ and ‘‘Putin is a thief!’’.
The number of arrests was estimated to surpass those in March during a first outbreak of nationwide anti-corruption protests called by Navalny.
Many of the protesters were young people who have grown up during Putin’s 17 years of ruling Russia. ’’Corruption is everywhere,’’ said student Artyom Mikhalin, 21. ‘‘It’s the hypocrisy of the authorities who say one thing and do another.’’
Many demonstrators carried blow-up rubber ducks, which have become the symbol of corruption associated with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev after a video report by Navalny alleged that Medvedev’s estate includes a duck house in the middle of a pond.
- DPA, Telegraph Group