Russia arrests 1,500 protesters
Opposition figure given 30-day term
MOSCOW: Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days, and more than 1,500 of his supporters were arrested after demonstrations across the nation on Monday against government corruption.
The protests were the second mass action since March 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.
A Moscow court, sitting late on Monday, found the 41-year-old Navalny guilty of organising unauthorised protests and sentenced him to a month in administrative custody, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.
The OVD-Info rights group said more than 1,500 of his supporters had been arrested during the protests across the country, including 823 in Moscow where riot police tried to push the crowds back, sometimes by beating them with batons.
As riot police grabbed people and led them to police vans others demonstrators shouted “Shame!”, “Putin is a thief!” and “Freedom to Navalny!”
Police held an estimated 600 protesters in St Petersburg, said the NGO, which tracks arrests and said more than 100 detentions had also been made in cities including Vladivostock, Kaliningrad, Norilsk and Sochi.
Thousands of Russians, many very young, chanted “Russia without Putin!” in the streets of dozens of cities during Monday’s protests.
Navalny himself was picked up by police as he headed to the Moscow event.
Thousands took to the streets in other cities across Russia, with the authorities sanctioning some gatherings and banning others. Some reports said authorities threatened university students with expulsion if they attended.
Navalny’s anticorruption videos have needled the country’s ruling elite and drawn crowds to the streets not seen since the protests against President Vladimir Putin’s re-election for a third term in 2012.
Navalny, who plans to stand against Mr Putin in presidential elections in March, appeared before a judge on Monday evening. He faces up to 30 days in administrative custody for breaking rules on organising demonstrations, his lawyer said.
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani voiced his concern after Navalny’s arrest and an EU spokesman deplored “the detention of hundreds of peaceful protesters and the violence used by Russian authorities against them”.
Rights group Amnesty International condemned “alarming scenes” of detentions and violence towards demonstrators, calling for their immediate release.
The recent rallies were galvanised by a film released by Navalny in early March, which accused Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling vast personal wealth through a shadowy network of foundations. It was viewed 22 million times.
“Putin has been in power for 17 years and is not planning to leave. He has usurped all power,” said protester Alexander Tyurin, 41.
Another protester Yevgeny, 19, said he had been expelled from university after participating in a previous rally.
“Our government shouts that enemies are everywhere and is becoming closed in on itself,” he said. “We want turnover among those in power. Pressure on young people has increased.”
Navalny has brought a new generation to the streets through his embrace of YouTube. His team was broadcasting from a studio in Moscow, though the electricity was periodically cut, forcing the presenter to speak in darkness.