Supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have called for several rallies across the country this weekend to demand his release after he was remanded in custody for the alleged violations he denies.
One from Navalny Allied leaders, lawyer and politician Lyubov Sobol, told reporters on Tuesday that his anti-corruption movement would continue to work despite the fact that many people were detained after protests swept through Russian cities over the weekend.
As a wave of criminal cases were launched against police detainees, a woman who was kicked to the ground by a police officer carrying sticks in St. Petersburg emerged as a symbol of how difficult it was to obtain repression. of the protesters.
The case of Margarita Yudina, aged 54, became a national scandal, after a film was kicked in the stomach by a police officer because she asked why the officer and his colleagues were detained.
New newspaper
(@novaya_gazeta)⚡️ Margarita Yudina, 54, who received a blow to the stomach from a police officer during the January 23 rallies in St. Petersburg, said she did not forgive her security officer, did not know her last name, and intends to address the Committee of Inquiry. Yudina announced this in an interview with Novaya Gazeta. pic.twitter.com/ODUWHSkWVN
In the video, Yudina is seen falling on the sidewalk again after being kicked, hitting her head hard. Hospital documents show he suffered a contusion and needed stitches in the back of his neck.
Although the officer visited her in the hospital and apologized, Yudina told the Novaya Gazeta newspaper on Tuesday that she wanted justice.
“This case must take its legal course,” she said. “So I intend to appeal to the Committee of Inquiry and find out who attacked me. I want the person who hit me to be found, named and punished according to the law. ”
The Kremlin said the “violence” by some protesters was unprecedented and aggressive. The incidence of police violence has been much lower and has been investigated, he said.
But Navalny’s supporters have not been discouraged, Sobol said, and will continue with demonstrations calling for his release, despite “arrests of our followers and allies, open criminal investigations (and) forthcoming criminal investigations.” .
She said they had planned planned protests on January 31 and February 2, when a court is scheduled to consider motions to convert his suspended sentence to actual imprisonment.
She added that one of their goals was to stop President Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, in the next parliamentary election.
“There are a lot of plans and tasks for the near future, [as well as] in the medium and long term [ones], and everyone understands what needs to be done both tomorrow and a month from now and half a year from now “, said Sobol.
“One of the main goals is to … destroy Russia’s monopoly on the parliamentary elections this September.”
Repression against protesters continued to provoke international outrage. Top diplomats from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as the European Union’s high representative, condemned Navalny’s “political arrest and detention” and said they were “deeply concerned about the detention of thousands of peaceful protesters and journalists. ”
Joe Biden expressed concern about the case when he first spoke with Putin on Tuesday as US president.