The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Putin opponent jailed in protest clampdown
Russia: Anti-corruption lawyer locked up after leading demos
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed for 15 days for resisting police orders.
A court in Moscow issued the ruling after Navalny was detained on Sunday as he made his way to a massive protest in the Russian capital.
Tens of thousands of anti-corruption protesters took to the streets across Russia on Sunday in the biggest show of defiance since 2011-2012 anti-government protests.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Monday chided opposition organisers for putting people’s lives at risk in the unauthorised protests, and defended the actions of Russia’s helmeted riot police, which critics called heavy-handed.
Journalists and wellwishers packed the courtroom in central Moscow yesterday where Navalny was taken. He posted a selfieonTwitterfromthere, saying: “A time will come when we’ll put them on trial too – and that time it will be fair.”
Navalny, 40, Russia’s most popular opposition leader, has been twice convicted on fraud and embezzlement charges that he has dismissed as politically motivated. Navalny, who is currently serving a suspended sentence, has also recently announced his bid to run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election.
“Even the slightest illusion of fair justice is absent here,” Navalny told reporters on Monday.
“Yesterday’s events have shown that quite a large number of voters in Russia support the program of a candidate who stands for fighting corruption.”
The Kremlin has dismissed the opposition as a westernisedurbanelite disconnected from the issues faced by the poor in Russia’s far-flung regions. Yet Sunday’s protests included demonstrations in the areas that typically produce a high vote for Mr Putin, from the city of Chita in eastern Siberia to southern Dagestan’s capital of Makhachkala.
Russian police said about 500 people were arrested in the protests on Sunday, but ahumanrights grouppublished a listofdetainees that has more than 1,000 names. On Monday, the European Union called on Russian authorities to release the demonstrators.
“The Kremlin respects people’s civic stance and their right to voice their position,” said Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “We can’t express the same respect to those who consciously misled people and who consciously did it yesterday and provoked illegal actions.”
Russian law allows officials to sanction or ban demonstrations. Over the years, Navalny, a lawyer, has evolved from a lone blogger to someone who leads a group of likeminded activists.
“Even the slightest illusion of fair justice is absent here”