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‘Hundreds arrested’ in pro-Navalny protests across Russia
Alexei Navalny’s wife has been detained along with 3,000 others as protesters across Russia demanded the release of the jailed opposition politician.
Yulia Navalnaya joined a rally in Moscow – where police sealed off pedestrian access in areas and shut down metro stations – where she counted among the 500 detained.
Rallies are being held across the country for the second weekend in a row after the opposition leader was arrested earlier this month upon his return to the capital, having spent months in Germany recovering from a poisoning.
Authorities warned rallies were not authorised and would be broken up, as they were last weekend – when more than 4,000 people were detained, according to OVD-Info, and tens of thousands took to the streets.
Demonstrations took place hundreds of miles apart, with protesters rallying in support of Mr Navalny in cities in Siberia, as well as in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Mr Navalny is accused of parole violations which he has claimed are trumped up. A court is due to meet next week to consider handing him a jail term of up to three and a half years.
82 journalists detained while covering protests across Russia
At least 82 journalists have been arrested today while reporting on the protests in 31 cities, including 22 in Moscow. Meanwhile, Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Alexei Navalny, remains in custody.
Daisy Lester31 January 2021 15:25
“Get Lukashenko in a police van!” solidarity shown between protestors in Russia and Belarus
A video shared online shoes protestors drawing parallels between today’s events in Russia and the recent rallies in Belarus against the Lukashenko regime.
Daisy Lester31 January 2021 15:15
“I want them to live in a free country”
Some of the biggest rallies during Sunday’s events were held in Novosibirsk in eastern Siberia and Yekaterinburg in the Urals.
Demonstrators march by the Iset River in central Yekaterinburg
(Donat Sorokin/TASS)
“I do not want my grandchildren to live in such a country,” said 55-year-old Vyacheslav Vorobyov, who turned out for a rally in Yekaterinburg. “I want them to live in a free country.”
Daisy Lester31 January 2021 15:05
It seems as good time as ever to read Moscow correspondent Oliver Carroll’s piece about protests last week, which he said “appears to be the most significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s authority in a decade”.
Why Navalny protests across Russia will have rattled the Kremlin
A wave of protests swept across Russia on Saturday — in what appears to be the most significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s authority in a decade. At least 100,000, likely much more, took to the streets of over a hundred towns and cities over eleven time zones, in the middle of a pandemic, in temperatures that in one case reached minus 50, and despite credible threats and occasional reality of a violent crackdown.
Daisy Lester31 January 2021 14:50
Couple hold hands while being marched away by Kremlin’s police
One video from Sunday’s protests shared online shows a couple holding hands while being frogmarched away by police.
More than 3,000 protestors have been been arrested during the protests to demand the release of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Daisy Lester31 January 2021 14:39
‘Crude interference’
The Russian foreign ministry has rejected Antony Blinken’s call as a “crude interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and accused Washington of trying to destabilize the situation in the country by backing the protests.
Zoe Tidman31 January 2021 14:30
Lockdown, dogs and truncheons: The Kremlin’s heavy-handed response to Navalny protestors
The police have arrested more than 3,000 protestors by mid-afternoon, as reported by our Moscow correspondent, Oliver Carroll.
“There was nothing subtle about the stance of authorities ahead of Sunday’s protests in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
“Beginning early morning, police sliced off central Moscow from cars and pedestrians. A dozen metro stations were shuttered. Thousands of riot police were placed behind concentric rings of metal and barking dogs.”
Read all the updates from the Navalny protests here:
Daisy Lester31 January 2021 14:20
US condemns ‘harsh tactics’ against protesters
The US has condemned “harsh tactics” being used against those rallying in support of Alexei Navalny.
Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, called for all those detained “for exercising their human rights” to be released – including the opposition leader whose imprisonment has sparked the protests.
Zoe Tidman31 January 2021 14:15
‘Bloody scenes’
Our Moscow correspondent, Oliver Carroll, has shared a video of police ushering away a protester covered in blood.
“St Petersburg police have a reputation for nastiness, and today is no exception,” he says.
Zoe Tidman31 January 2021 14:00
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