MOSCOW (AP) – Police in Moscow on Saturday detained about 200 people who had taken part in a forum of independent members of municipal councils, a move that came amid widespread repression by Russian authorities.
Police arrived at the rally shortly after it opened in a Moscow hotel and said all those present would be detained for participating in an event organized by an ‘undesirable’ organization. A police officer who led the raid said the detained individuals would be taken to the police station and charged with administrative offenses.
Moscow police said in a statement that they decided to suspend the meeting because it violated coronavirus restrictions as many participants did not wear masks. According to them, about 200 participants were detained, some of whom are believed to be members of an unspecified “unwanted” organization.
OVD-Info, an independent group monitoring arrests and political repression, has compiled a list of more than 180 people detained. They included Ilya Yashin, an opposition politician who leads one of Moscow’s municipal districts; former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman; and Moscow Municipal Councilor Yulia Galyamina.
Police released the detainees after handing over court proceedings for participating in the activities of an ‘undesirable’ organization, which is an offense punishable by a fine. It was unclear how many remained in police custody Saturday night.
“Their goal was to scare people away from politics,” Andrei Pivovarov, a politician who helped organize the forum, said in a video recorded while in a police van.
Pivovarov played a leading role in Open Russia, a group funded by Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky moved to London after spending ten years in prison in Russia on charges widely regarded as political revenge for challenging President Vladimir Putin’s rule.
A 2015 law introduced criminal penalties for membership in “unwanted” organizations. The government used the law to ban about 30 groups, including Open Russia.
A previous law required non-governmental organizations receiving foreign funding and activities loosely described as political to register as ‘foreign agents’.
The laws were widely criticized as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to quell differences of opinion, but Russian authorities described them as an appropriate response to alleged Western attempts to undermine the country.
Police’s action on Saturday’s forum follows the arrest and imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most determined political enemy was arrested on January 17 when he returned from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have denied the allegations.
Last month, Navalny was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation when he recovered in Germany – charges he dismissed as a Kremlin vendetta. His arrest and imprisonment sparked a spate of protests across Russia, to which the authorities responded with massive repression.
The government intensified its fight against the opposition ahead of the parliamentary elections that took place in September, as the popularity of the main Kremlin-backed party, United Russia, declined.