IN THE WORLD TODAY

More civil unrest over Navalny

ARUSSIAN court has rejected opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s appeal against his arrest while authorities detained several of his allies after tens of thousands swarmed the streets in more than 100 Russian cities last weekend demanding his release.

Speaking to court via video link from jail, Navalny denounced criminal proceedings against him as part of the government’s efforts to intimidate the opposition.

“You won’t succeed in scaring tens of millions of people who have been robbed by that government,” he said.

The detention of Navalny’s brother Oleg, his top ally Lyubov Sobol, Dr Anastasia Vasilyeva from the Alliance of Doctors, and Maria Alyokhina from the Pussy Riot punk collective comes as authorities try to stem another wave of protests set for Sunday.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the searches and detentions were a legitimate part of police efforts to investigate the alleged violations during Saturday’s rallies.

Russian prosecutors yesterday also issued warnings to Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok and Russian social networks demanding that they block calls for more protests.

“The state doesn’t want the social networks to become a platform for promoting such illegal actions ... All pros and cons will be weighed and, if necessary, measures envisaged by the law will be taken,” Peskov said.

Demonstrations calling for Navalny’s release took place in more than 100 cities across the nation last Saturday, a strong show of rising anger toward the Kremlin. Nearly 4000 people were reported detained and some were handed fines and jail terms.