2 aides of Kremlin critic are detained

MOSCOW — Police on Thursday took into custody two top associates of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny ahead of planned protests against his detention.

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who is the Kremlin’s most prominent foe, was arrested Sunday when he traveled to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

Authorities say his long stay in Germany violated the terms of a suspended sentence in a 2014 conviction for financial misdeeds.

Navalny’s supporters are calling for demonstrations Saturday.

His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh was detained by police at her residence several hours after Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for Navalny’s Fund for Fighting Corruption, was detained. There were no immediate reports of charges lodged against either.