Putin faces more protests, says opponent as he is jailed
Opposition leader defiant as more than 1,000 people arrested in Russia’s wave of anti-corruption marches
VLADIMIR PUTIN’S government will face further demonstrations of public discontent after a wave of anti-corruption protests swept Russia at the weekend, the opposition leader arrested for leading the rallies has said.
Alexei Navalny, 40, was jailed for 15 days yesterday for disobeying a police officer at a protest against government corruption in central Moscow at the weekend.
He was also ordered to pay a fine of 20,000 rubles (£280) for organising an unsanctioned demonstration.
“You can’t detain tens of thousands of people,” Alexei Navalny told reporters in the court room. “Yesterday we saw the authorities can only go so far.”
More than 1,000 people were arrested in cities across Russia on Sunday following dozens of demonstrations demanding that prime minister Dmitry Medvedev resign over corruption allegations released in a dossier compiled by Mr Navalny. Mr Medvedev’s spokesman called the allegations “propagandistic attacks” unworthy of detailed comment and said they amounted to pre-election posturing by Navalny.
Police also arrested 17 people at the office of Mr Navalny’s anti-corruption campaign group, which was running a webcast of the Moscow demonstration.
After arriving in court on Monday morning, Mr Navalny tweeted a selfie with the caption: “A time will come when we’ll put them on trial too – and that time it will be fair.”
Mr Navalny struck a defiant note at the hearing, demanding that Mr Medvedev be called as a witness to explain the alleged corruption people were protesting about and saying he and his allies would not be deterred.
Sunday’s demonstrations were the largest expression of discontent with Mr Putin’s government since the winter of 2011 and 2012, when a series of massive protests took place in Moscow following elections marred by accusations of fraud. But, unlike five years ago, this weekend’s protests took place in cities across the nation, including Novosibirsk in Siberia, Yekaterinburg in the Urals, and Vladivostok in the far east.
The breadth of the protests poses a challenge for the Kremlin, which had some success characterising previous Moscow-based opposition marches as the work of an out-of-touch metropolitan elite.
The Kremlin yesterday accused Mr Navalny and other protest leaders of inciting a “provocation” and “offering certain rewards” to encourage schoolchildren to take part.
“The Kremlin respects people’s civic stance and their right to voice their position,” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said. “We can’t express the same respect to those who consciously misled people and who consciously did it yesterday and provoked illegal actions,” he added.
Asked about the Kremlin’s reaction to the wide geography of the protests, Mr Peskov said: “The Kremlin is quite sober about the scale of yesterday’s protests, and are not inclined to diminish them or push them out of proportion.”
The European Union called on the Kremlin to release those detained “without delay”.
Mr Navalny plans to run for president against Mr Putin at elections next year. However, the lawyer-turned-opposition leader is serving a suspended sentence for fraud and embezzlement, which could bar him from the ballot..