Palace protests rock ‘thief’ Putin
Wife of poisoned Kremlin critic is among 3,400 held as Russians t ake to the streets days after he posted video of President’s $1billion mansion
EVEN in the coldest city on Earth, where frostbite can strike in just two minutes, the people were determined to vent their fury.
It was -51C yesterday in Yakutsk, a Siberian port not normally given to street protest, so it was a measure of the depth of feeling aroused by the detention of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny that its fur-clad citizens left the warmth of their homes to face police in the snowbound main square. Some chanted anti-Kremlin slogans, and in doing so risked their health as well as their liberty. For never mind chanting, at -51C doctors advise talking is kept to a minimum to protect lungs.
On a much grander scale, protest raged 5,000 miles away in Moscow, where more than 40,000 gathered, and across the whole of Russia, from Volgograd to Vladivostok, and more than 80 cities in between. Everywhere they expressed the common refrain: ‘Alexei is not afraid. We are not afraid.’
From all walks of life, they came in peace. Dignified but quietly insistent (so different from Donald Trump’s Capitol Hill mob) and armed with nothing more deadly than banners. Yet still they fell beneath flailing batons.
Police arrested more than 3,400 people, mostly plucking them indiscriminately from crowds and roughly bundling them into vans. Some, though, were deliberately targeted. None more so than Mr Navalny’s 44-year-old wife Yulia, who was arrested while attending a Moscow rally, having earlier paid tribute to her ‘brave’ husband.
Later she posted an image of herself on her Instagram account as she was carted off. The caption would have met with approval from her husband, renowned for his sardonic humour. It said: ‘Apologies for the poor quality. Very bad light in the police van.’ Talk of revolution may be premature but whether this extraordinary day of dissent – Moscow saw its biggest unauthorised rally for years – will come to be seen as a watershed remains to be seen. Some held banners that dared to dream: ‘Russia will be free’.
There has long been frustration at falling wages, a situation made worse by the pandemic. On top of that, public anger was sharpened last week by a video released by Navalny giving details of a secret $1 billion palace – with a strip club, casino and theatre – allegedly built for Putin on the Black Sea coast.
Some protesters carried toilet brushes in reference to the £600 Italian- made luxury brush the video suggests Putin uses.
Mr Navalny, 44, was arrested when he returned to Russia last Sunday from Berlin. A court ruled on Monday that he had violated parole conditions and must remain behind bars until at least mid-February. High-profile detentions and trumped up charges are nothing new in Russia.
But Mr Navalny’s poisoning and dramatic arrest enraged many whose support he has never previously enjoyed.
The Kremlin did what it could to prevent the demonstrations taking place. And it has denied the report about the Black Sea palace. Russian celebrities made plain their dismay at Mr Navalny’s arrest, using social media to urge people to take to the streets. Igor Denisov, a former captain of the national football team, said: ‘I’d like to support Alexei Navalny and his family – he should be freed.’
For now Navalny remains in a detention centre, in fear for his life. In a chilling message passed to his lawyer, Mr Navalny said: ‘Just in case, I declare: I have no plans to hang myself on the window bars or slit my wrists or throat with a sharpened spoon.’
Several of Mr Navalny’s close aides, including his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, were arrested earlier in the week. In Moscow’s Pushkin Square police bellowed through loudhailers: ‘This is an illegal gathering – please leave.’
Passing drivers sounded their horns in support of the protesters, with one hanging a pair of underpants out of his window, a reference to Mr Navalny’s poisoning. The would-be assassins had applied the novichok to his underwear.
Mr Navalny was flown to Berlin for emergency treatment after being poisoned during a trip to Siberia in August. Russian doctors who initially treated him claimed he had been left fighting for his life because of ‘low blood sugar’. The Kremlin denied any role in the poisoning but Mr Navalny continued to point the finger at Mr Putin as he recovered in Germany.