Youths discouraged from attending Navalny protests

MOSCOW >> A ninth grader in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg asked his classmates this week why it was that they did not like President Vladimir Putin.

According to their teacher, Irina V. Skachkova, they responded by citing jailed opposition leader Alexei A. Navalny: “Putin has a palace that was built with stolen money, and Putin is himself a thief.”

Navalny’s dramatic return to Russia from Germany on Sunday and his immediate arrest, followed by his release of a video documenting Putin’s purported secret palace on the Black Sea, has captivated many young Russians and prompted authorities to scramble to keep them away from protests planned across the country Saturday.

Skachkova, like many teachers across Russia, said she was told by her superiors to come up with counterprogramming for her students Saturday and to plead with parents that they keep young people from taking to the streets.

The Education Ministry urged families to spend the weekend doing nonpolitical activities like “taking a walk in a park or a forest.” Russia’s telecommunications regulator said it had ordered social networks to take down posts promoting today’s protests, and the country’s top investigative body said it had started a criminal investigation into the alleged incitement of minors to join.