MOSCOW (AP) – Authorities in Russia have taken extensive measures to curb protests against the jail term of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who plans to support his supporters in more than 60 Russian cities on Saturday.
Navalny’s collaborators in Moscow and other regions were detained in the run-up to the rallies. Supporters of the opposition and independent journalists were approached by police officers with official warnings against the protest.
Universities and colleges in different Russian regions have encouraged students not to attend meetings, and some say they may be subject to disciplinary action, including expulsion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that ‘it is natural to be warned … about the possible consequences of non-compliance’, as there are calls for ‘unauthorized, illegal events’. ‘.
Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and fiercest critic of the Kremlin, was arrested on Sunday when he returned from Germany to Russia, where he spent nearly five months recovering from the nerve agent poisoning he blames the Kremlin. On Monday, a judge ordered Navalny to be sentenced to 30 days in prison.
He faces many years in prison – authorities have accused him of violating the terms of a suspended sentence in a 2014 conviction for financial misconduct, including when he recovered in Germany.
Navalny’s supporters protested nationwide on Saturday to put the government under pressure to release the politician, but came under pressure himself.
On Thursday night, police in Moscow detained three leading collaborators of Navalny. On Friday, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh was ordered to spend nine days in jail, and Georgy Alburov was sentenced to ten days in jail. Navalny’s close ally Lyubov Sobol was released on Thursday night but was ordered by a court on Friday to pay a $ 3,300 fine. All three are charged with violating protest regulations.
More than a dozen activists and Navalny allies in several Russian regions were also detained.
The Russian prosecutor general’s office and police have issued public warnings against attending or calling unauthorized rallies. Prosecutors also demanded that Roskomnadzor, the Russian media and internet watchdog, restrict access to sites containing calls to protest on Saturday.
On Friday, Russia’s largest social network VKontakte blocked all pages devoted to the rallies.
Roskomnadzor also announced that he would fine social media companies for encouraging minors to take part in the protests. The move comes amid media reports of calls for demonstrations – and videos of schoolchildren replacing portraits of President Vladimir Putin in their classrooms with those of Navalny – which are going viral among teenagers on the social network TikTok.
The Russian Ministry of Education has issued a statement urging its parents to “protect” their children from the events on Saturday, saying that “no one has the right to lure young people into various political actions and provocations.”
And the Commission of Inquiry has launched a criminal investigation into the “involvement of minors in illegal activities” and accuses unknown supporters of Navalny of encouraging minors to take part in the marches on social media.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, also called on Moscow not to attend the rally on Friday, in a video statement from the TV channel Moskva24. Sobyanin cited the coronavirus issues, calling the upcoming demonstration “illegal” and saying that “law enforcement agencies will ensure the necessary order in the city.”
Navalny’s allies say supporters should not get discouraged and turn up on Saturday.
“Do not be afraid. Leave it to the Kremlin. We are right and we are the majority, “Lyubov Sobol wrote in a Facebook post.
Dozens of influential Russians, including actors, musicians, journalists, writers, athletes and popular bloggers, have issued statements in support of Navalny, and some have promised to attend the demonstrations.