IN THE WORLD TODAY

Russia arrests Navalny supporters

TWO close associates of Alexei Navalny have been detained ahead of protests planned to support the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, who has been on a hunger strike since March 31.

Navalny’s team had called on Sunday for nationwide protests after reports about his health deteriorating in prison. Russian authorities have stressed that the demonstrations were not authorised and warned against participating in them.

Vladimir Voronin, a lawyer for top Navalny ally Lyubov Sobol, said on Twitter that people “in uniform” removed Sobol from a taxi near a Moscow metro station on Wednesday morning and took her to a police precinct.

Police also detained Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, who is currently under house arrest on charges related to January protests in support of the politician.

In the Pacific port of Vladivostok, about 1000 protesters marched through the city chanting “Russia without Putin” and smaller demonstrations took place in Far

East cities including PetropavlovskKamchatsky and Yuzho-Sakhalinsk.

In St Petersburg, the State University of Aerospace Instrumentation posted a notice warning that students participating in unauthorised demonstrations could be expelled.

Navalny was ordered to serve two-and-a-half years in prison for an embezzlement conviction, which the European Court of Human Rights deemed to be “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable”.

Navalny began the hunger strike to protest against prison officials’ refusal to let his doctors visit when he began experiencing severe back pain and a loss of feeling in his legs.

Navalny’s physician, Dr Yaroslav Ashikhmin, said on Saturday: “Our patient could die at any moment.”