Tens of thousands join protests in support of Russian opposition leader Navalny

Tens of thousands sang slogans against President Vladimir Putin, took to the streets across Russia on Sunday to demand the release of sent to jail opposition leader Alexey Navalny, nationwide protests continued that plagued the Kremlin. According to a monitoring group, more than 4,700 people were detained by police, and some were beaten.

Russian authorities have made great efforts to stem the tide of protests, after tens of thousands nationwide gathered in the country over the weekend in the biggest, most common misrepresentation Russia has seen in years. Despite threats of jail time, warnings to social media groups and strict police cordons, the protests on Sunday engulfed cities in Russia’s eleven time zones again.

Navalny’s team quickly summoned another protest in Moscow on Tuesday, when he stood before a court hearing that could send him to prison for years.

The 44-year-old Navalny, an investigator into corruption who is Putin’s most famous critic, was arrested on 17 January after his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from the poisoning of nerve agents he blamed the Kremlin. Russian authorities have denied the allegations. He was arrested for allegedly violating his parole conditions by failing to report to law enforcement meetings when he recovers in Germany

The United States urged Russia to release Navalny and criticized the protest against protests.

“The US condemns the continued use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week in a row,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter.

Russia’s foreign ministry has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once.

According to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests, police on Sunday detained more than 4,700 people during protests in cities nationwide. about 4000 arrests exceeded during the protests across Russia on January 23.

In Moscow, authorities have introduced unprecedented security measures in the city center, with metro stations near the Kremlin, cutting off bus traffic and ordering restaurants and shops to remain closed.

Navalny’s team initially demanded that Sunday’s protest be held on Lubyanka Square in Moscow, home to the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, which Navalny said was responsible for its poisoning. Facing police offices around the square, the protest moves to other central squares and streets.

The police picked up people at random and placed in polisiebusse, but thousands of protesters marched for hours through the city center and Putin, resign! ” and “Putin, thief!” – a reference to a lush Black Sea estate that was reportedly built for the Russian leader, in a very popular video released by Navalny’s team.

“I’m not afraid because we are the majority,” said Leonid Martynov, who took part in the protest. “We should not be afraid of clubs, because the truth is on our side.”

At one point, crowds of protesters walked to the Matrosskaya Tishina prison where Navalny is being held. They were met by phalanxes of riot police who pushed back the march and chased protesters through courtyards, holding scores and beating some with clubs. Still, protesters continued to march in the Russian capital, zigzagging police cordons.

Nearly 1,500 people were detained in Moscow, including Navalny’s wife, Yulia. “If we keep quiet, they will come after one of us tomorrow,” she said on Instagram before protesting.

Amnesty International said authorities in Moscow had arrested so many people that the city’s detention facilities were no longer available. “The Kremlin is waging a war against the human rights of people in Russia, thwarting the protesters’ calls for freedom and change,” Natalia Zviagina, the group’s chief of staff in Moscow, said in a statement.

Several thousand people marched through Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg and chanted a song with the tsar! and occasionally quarrels arose when some protesters repulsed the police who were trying to make arrest. More than 1,000 were arrested.

Some of the largest rallies were held in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk in eastern Siberia and Yekaterinburg in the Urals.

“I do not want my grandchildren to live in such a country,” said 55-year-old Vyacheslav Vorobyov, who performed in Yekaterinburg. “I want them to live in a free country.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, currently chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, condemns’ excessive use of force by authorities and mass detention of peaceful protesters and journalists’ and urges Russia ‘to to release all who have been wrongfully detained, including Navalny. “

As part of a concerted effort by authorities to stop the protests, courts last week sent Navalny’s collaborators and activists across the country to jail. His brother Oleg, top assistant Lyubov Sobol and three other people were placed in a two-month house arrest on Friday on charges of violating coronavirus restrictions during last weekend’s protests.

Prosecutors also demanded that social media platforms block calls to join the protests.

The Interior Ministry has issued stern warnings to the public, saying protesters could be charged with participating in mass riots, which imposed prison sentences of up to eight years.

Demonstrations were fueled by a two-hour YouTube video released by Navalny’s team following his arrest over the Black Residence allegedly built for Putin. The video was viewed more than 100 million times, which inspired a stream of sarcastic jokes on the internet amid an economic downturn.

Russia saw widespread corruption during Putin’s tenure, while poverty remained widespread.

Protesters in Moscow shout “Aqua disco!” – a reference to one of the posh facilities in the residence which also contains a casino and a water pipe lounge equipped for pole dancing.

Putin does not say he or any of his next of kin own the property. Construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, a longtime confidant of Putin and his occasional judo sparring partner, claimed on Saturday that he owned the property.

Navalny fell into a coma on August 20 while on a flight from Siberia to Moscow, and the pilot diverted the plane so he could be treated in the city of Omsk. He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, determined that he was exposed to the nerve agent of Novichok.

Russian authorities have refused to launch a full-fledged criminal investigation, claiming they have no evidence that he was poisoned.

Navalny was arrested immediately earlier this month and sentenced to 30 days in prison at the request of the Russian prison service, which he claims violates the sentence of his suspended sentence of a money laundering conviction in 2014 which he rejected as political revenge has. .

A court in Moscow on Thursday rejected the appeal for Navalny’s release and another trial on Tuesday could change his suspended sentence of 3 1/2 years into one he has to serve in prison. Navalny’s team again called for a protest outside the courthouse.