Protests erupt in Russia over Navalny detention
MOSCOW – Protests erupted in dozens of cities across Russia on Saturday to demand the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe. Police arrested more than 2,100 people, some of whom took to the streets in temperatures as frigid as minus-58 Fahrenheit.
Thousands of demonstrators filled Pushkin Square at the center of Moscow, where clashes with police broke out and demonstrators, some beaten with batons, were dragged off by helmeted riot officers to police buses and detention trucks.
Police pushed demonstrators out of the square. Thousands regrouped along a boulevard about a half-mile away, many of them throwing snowballs at the police before dispersing.
The protests stretched across Russia’s vast territory. The range demonstrated how Navalny and his anti-corruption campaign have built an extensive network of support despite official government repression and being routinely ignored by state media.
“The situation is getting worse and worse, it’s total lawlessness,” said Andrei Gorkyov, a protester in Moscow. “And if we stay silent, it will go on forever.”
The OVD-Info group, which monitors political arrests, said at least 795 people were detained in Moscow and more than 300 at another large demonstration in St. Petersburg. Overall, it said, 2,131 people had been arrested in about 90 cities.
Undeterred, Navalny’s supporters called for protests again next weekend.
Navalny was arrested Jan. 17 when he returned to Moscow from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a severe nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin and which Russian authorities deny. Authorities said his stay in Germany violated terms of a suspended sentence in a criminal conviction in 2014. Navalny said the conviction was for made-up charges.
The activist, 44, is known nationally for his reports on the corruption that has flourished under President Vladimir Putin’s government.
Navalny faces a court hearing in early February to determine whether his sentence in the criminal case for fraud and money-laundering – which Navalny said was politically motivated – is converted to 31⁄2 years behind bars.