Raids target Navalny’s colleagues ahead of Valentine’s Day protest
RUSSIAN police have searched the offices of associates of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny ahead of another mass protest planned for Sunday.
Navalny’s team from the city of Chelyabinsk in the Urals published photos on the Telegram app on Saturday of the rooms turned upside down.
Earlier, police officers searched a Moscow office linked to Navalny, who is the most prominent opposition figure in Russia. People across Russia are being called upon to stand outside their homes in the evening on Valentine’s Day and hold up torches to express solidarity with Navalny.
After more than 11,000 people were arrested at demonstrations over the past weeks, the torch protest is supposed to be less dangerous for the participants. Furthermore, holding up torches is not a banned activity.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently declared that they were not interested in a “cat-and-mouse game,” but would pursue possible violations of the law.
Saint Petersburg’s deputy governor also said that holding up a torch was not against the law. A fortnight ago, Navalny was sentenced to several years in prison in a trial that was heavily criticised internationally.
A suspended sentence from an earlier criminal trial was converted to a proper custodial sentence because the opposition figure was said to have violated reporting requirements while recovering in Germany from a poison attack.
Navalny has blamed the apparent murder attempt on President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has dismissed the accusation.