More than 4,000 arrested amid protests across Russia demanding Navalny’s release

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Thousands of people took to the streets across Russia on Sunday to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny&comma; keeping up the nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than 4&comma;000 people were detained by police&comma; according to one monitoring group&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Russian authorities mounted a massive effort to stem the tide of demonstrations after tens of thousands rallied across the country last weekend in the largest&comma; most widespread show of discontent that Russia has seen in years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Yet despite threats of jail terms&comma; warnings to social media groups and notable displays of riot police&comma; the protests again engulfed many cities on Sunday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Navalny&comma; 44&comma; an anti-corruption investigator who is President Vladimir Putin’s best-known critic&comma; was arrested on January 17 on his return from Germany&comma; where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Russian authorities have rejected the accusations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He was arrested for allegedly violating his parole conditions by not reporting for meetings with law enforcement while recuperating in Germany&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The United States urged Russia to release Mr Navalny and criticised the crackdown on protests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The US condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight&comma;” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Russian foreign ministry rejected Mr Blinken’s call as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;crude interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and accused Washington of trying to destabilise the situation in the country by backing the protests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Police detained more than 4&comma;100 people at protests held in cities across Russia’s 11 time zones on Sunday&comma; according to OVD-Info&comma; a group that monitors political arrests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Moscow&comma; authorities introduced unprecedented security measures in the city centre&comma; closing underground stations near the Kremlin&comma; cutting bus traffic and ordering restaurants and shops to stay closed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Navalny’s team initially called for Sunday’s protest to be held on Moscow’s Lubyanka Square&comma; home to the main headquarters of the Federal Security Service&comma; which Mr Navalny claims was responsible for his poisoning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After police cordoned off the area around the square&comma; the protest shifted to another central square a mile away&period; Officers deployed in force at this location too&comma; randomly picking up people and putting them in police buses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But hundreds of others marched across the city centre&comma; chanting &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Putin&comma; resign&excl;” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Putin&comma; thief&excl;”&comma; a reference to an opulent Black Sea estate reportedly built for the Russian leader that was featured in a widely popular video released by Mr Navalny’s team&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some later marched to the Matrosskaya Tishina prison where Mr Navalny is being held&comma; but met phalanxes of riot police who chased them back and detained scores&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than 1&comma;200 people were detained in Moscow&comma; including Mr Navalny’s wife&comma; Yulia&comma; who joined the protest&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Posting on Instagram before turning out to protest&comma; she said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If we keep silent&comma; they will come after any of us tomorrow&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The city of Novosibirsk in eastern Siberia saw one of the biggest rallies&comma; with several thousand people marching across the city&period; Over 100 protesters were detained at this demonstration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Several thousand people marched across Russia’s second-largest city&comma; St Petersburg&comma; and occasional scuffles erupted as some demonstrators pushed back police who tried to make detentions&period; Nearly 900 were arrested&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the far eastern port of Vladivostok&comma; at least 120 people were detained after protesters danced on the ice and rallied in the city centre&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; as part of a multipronged effort by authorities to block the protests&comma; courts have jailed Mr Navalny’s associates and activists across the country over the past week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>His brother Oleg&comma; top aide Lyubov Sobol and three other people were put under two-month house arrest on Friday on charges of allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions during last weekend’s protests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prosecutors also demanded that social media platforms block calls to join the protests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Interior Ministry has issued stern warnings to the public not to join the protests&comma; saying participants could be charged with taking part in mass riots&comma; which carries a prison sentence of up to eight years&period; Those engaging in violence against police could face up to 15 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nearly 4&comma;000 people were reportedly detained at demonstrations on January 23 calling for Mr Navalny’s release which took place in more than 100 Russian cities&comma; and some were given fines and jail terms&period; About 20 were accused of assaulting police and faced criminal charges&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Shortly after Mr Navalny’s arrest&comma; his team released a two-hour video on his YouTube channel about the Black Sea residence purportedly built for Mr Putin&period; The video has been viewed over 100 million times&comma; helping fuel discontent and inspiring a stream of sarcastic jokes on the internet amid an economic downturn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Russia has seen extensive corruption during Mr Putin’s time in office even as many ordinary citizens struggle financially&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Putin says that neither he nor any of his close relatives own the property&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Navalny fell into a coma on August 20 while on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow&period; He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later&period; Labs in Germany&comma; France and Sweden&comma; and tests by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons&comma; established that he was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent&period; Russian authorities have refused to open a fully-fledged criminal inquiry&comma; claiming a lack of evidence that he was poisoned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Navalny was arrested immediately on his return to Russia on January 17 and jailed for 30 days on the request of the country’s prison service&comma; which alleged he had violated the probation of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money-laundering conviction that he has rejected as political revenge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Thursday&comma; a Moscow court rejected Mr Navalny’s appeal to be released&comma; and another hearing next week could turn his three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence into one he must serve in prison&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e21aaf5dabc">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;divId&colon; 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e21aaf5dabc'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;format&colon; 'belowpost'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; document&period;readyState &equals;&equals;&equals; 'loading' &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;document&period;addEventListener&lpar; 'DOMContentLoaded'&comma; window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; else &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback&lpar;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;script>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>


Discover more from London Glossy Post

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

- Advertisement -
Exit mobile version