Russia arrests hundreds in street protests
AUTHORITIES detained Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and hundreds of his supporters yesterday as they mounted demonstrations across the nation against government corruption.
The protests are the second mass action since March 26 called by Navalny, who has announced his intention to run for president next year and has drawn a new generation to the streets through a relentless online campaign.
More than 200 were detained in Moscow and Saint Petersburg an hour into the protest, according to an NGO that tracks arrests, with Navalny himself picked up by police in his building as he was headed to the event.
On central Moscow’s Tverskaya Street, a helicopter hovered overhead as riot police lined up and pushed back against the crowd, grabbing people and leading them to police vans as others shouted “Shame!”, “Putin is a thief!” and “Freedom to Navalny!”
The action also drew thousands to the streets in many other cities across Russia, with authorities sanctioning some gatherings and banning others. Some reports said authorities threatened university students with expulsion if they attended.
The 41-year-old Navalny’s anti-corruption videos have needled the country’s most powerful and drawn to the streets crowds unseen since a wave of protests against President Vladimir Putin’s re-election to a third term in 2012.
The recent rallies were galvanised by a film released by Navalny in early March which accused Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling vast personal wealth through a shadowy network of foundations, which has since been viewed more than 22 million times.
“Putin has been in power for 17 years and is not planning to leave. He has usurped all power,” protester Alexander Tyurin, 41, said.
“Corruption is a system. I work in a construction company and everything is mired in corruption.”
The head of Navalny’s anti-corruption group FBK, Roman Rubanov, was detained by police who came to his house, arrest tracking group OVD-Info said.
Navalny would be charged with administrative offences of resisting arrest and a second violation of demonstration organisation rules, Moscow police said.