Massive protests took place across Russia on Saturday in support of Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin. Navalny was arrested last Sunday after returning from Germany to Moscow, where he was being treated for poisoning allegedly linked to the Kremlin five months earlier.
According to Reuters, about 40,000 people took part in the demonstrations in Moscow, although police miscalculated the number and estimated the crowd at 4,000. Thousands more took part in cities across the country, from Yakutsk in the northeast to St. Petersburg in the west, and a total of about 3,000 protesters were arrested.
Protesters received a strong police presence – and government officials encouraged citizens to stay home, arguing that the marches did not have the necessary authority.
“Dear citizens, the current event is illegal,” police apparently announced during the rally in Moscow. “We do everything we can to ensure your safety.”
Few protesters heeded these warnings and according to reports by the human rights monitoring group OVD-Info, the number of people arrested in protests in Moscow, St. Petersburg and about 70 other cities has increased to at least 3,000. This includes about 1100 people in Moscow alone from 23:30 Moscow time Saturday.
Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, was among those arrested during the weekend’s protests. Heads of his regional offices were also detained before the protests, as well as members of Navalny’s team, including its press secretary, Kira Yarmysh.
Navalny’s arrest – and the detention of his team – caused a huge mass movement. The scale of the protests in Moscow is reminiscent of the summer of 2019, when at least 60,000 people protested in that city to demand fair elections. (Navalny was also arrested before the move.)
While many of the protesters were supporters of Navalny, others said they had come forward more because they wanted to see a comprehensive end to Putin’s authoritarian rule.
“I was never a big supporter of Navalny, and yet I understand very well that this is a very serious situation,” Vitaliy Blazhevich – who at 57 was one of the more senior participants in the demonstration – told New York Times said.
‘Unless we keep coming out [to protest]”The problem in this country will never go away,” Natalya Krainova, a former teacher, told the Guardian. “And the problem is Putin.”
Regardless of their motivation, protesters were met in many places with a fast and aggressive police force.
In a video from Moscow, police dressed in riotous equipment beat protesters with batons. Dozens of protesters in the city were arrested outside the Matrosskaya Tishina detention center, where Navalny is being held.
As the night fell, police unleashed smoke grenades in downtown Moscow, and protesters responded with snowballs, according to reporter Alec Luhn.
The demonstrations were also notable for their enormous geographical diversity. On Twitter, Atlantic Reporter Anne Applebaum gathered scenes of large-scale protests – largely made up of young people, many of whom fly Russian flags – in the cities of Irkutsk, Novosirbirsk, Vladivostok, Tomsk and Yakutsk.
Yakutsk is in eastern Siberia, while Vladivostok borders the Sea of Japan. In a Siberian winter, these protesters also braved fierce cold temperatures, with temperatures in some places being -60 ° F.
That the protests were so widespread and that they involved Russians of all ages is an indication of Navalny’s appeal and ability to mobilize supporters – especially young people – according to the Washington Post.
Over the past few years, Putin has moved to tackle opposition more aggressively, with new laws making it more difficult to organize protests. Russians who demonstrated on Saturday will be jailed as well as other consequences.
Artyom, a university student who protested, told the Guardian he and his classmates were threatened with serious academic consequences, which he said would mean expulsion if they participated.
Putin is likely to remain in power, despite public opposition seen on Saturday. A recent change to the Russian constitution will allow Putin to remain in power for another 15 years.
Navalny is the leader of the Russian opposition movement
In August, Navalny fell ill at a Siberian airport before boarding a flight to Moscow. His team, who were concerned that he was not receiving proper care in Russia, was partnering with a humanitarian group that transported him to Germany. There, doctors traced the cause of his illness, which turned out to be novichok, a deadly nerve agent known to be used by the Russian government.
As Alex Ward of Vox wrote, Navalny always promised to return to Russia, even if he continued his criticism of Putin from Germany – among other things, he directly accused the Kremlin of trying to kill him in YouTube videos. which has been viewed 40 million times.
When Navalny arrived at the airport in Berlin on January 17 for his return trip home, he said he was not afraid, although Russian officials on his return threatened to arrest him. Hundreds of supporters violated anti-protest laws to greet his plane at Vnukovo airport in Moscow. Instead, the plane was diverted to Sheremetyevo Airport, whereupon Navalny was arrested during passport control.
The official charge he faces is the failure to appear during a trial statement, which relates to a 2014 case in embezzlement. Navalny claims the charges are politically motivated. Nevertheless, if the charges remain, he could face years in prison.
His latest arrest follows years of attempts by the Kremlin to stifle his opposition and ward off Navalny, including by placing him on his federal wish list, claiming to have avoided inspectors abroad, as Ward wrote has:
These kinds of things are not new to Navalny. As already mentioned, he has been arrested before – and even poisoned before – so it is possible that he will eventually be released and again lead to the leadership of Russia’s anti-Putin movement. Sometimes the Kremlin Navalny just wants to remind those responsible, and slow down its work, in a way that tries to maintain the illusion of Russian democracy.
But it is also possible that Putin had it, especially since he wants to stay in power for life. The removal of his most important political mistake would certainly facilitate such a ploy, although it would condemn other nations, including the United States, which was newly led by Pres. Joe Biden, can condemn.
Navalny received support from US officials. Hours after detention of Navalny, incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted a statement condemning the detention of the Putin critic. “Mr Navalny must be released immediately, and the perpetrators of the outrageous attack on his life must be held accountable,” he wrote.
And Rebecca Ross, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Moscow, tweeted on Saturday: “The US supports the right of all people to peaceful protest, freedom of expression. Steps taken by Russian authorities are suppressing rights. ”
We look at reports of protests in 38 Russian cities, arrests of more than 350 peaceful protesters and journalists. The US supports the right of all people to peaceful protest, freedom of expression. Steps taken by the Russian authorities are suppressing the rights.
– Rebecca Ross (@USEmbRuPress) 23 January 2021
However, it is unclear how effective an American response will be. Relations between Washington and Moscow – which is already cool – have deteriorated further since a cap of US federal agencies was linked to Russia at the end of 2020. In addition, operations at the last two remaining U.S. consulates – one in Vladivostok and one in Yekaterinburg – have closed U.S. embassies in Moscow as the only U.S. outpost in the entire country.