MOSCOW (AP) – A top ally of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has announced a new anti-government protest, urging big city residents to briefly gather in residential yards on Sunday night with their mobile phone flashlights on.
Navalny’s strategist Leonid Volkov said the protest would start at 8pm and last 15 minutes. The new format of the rally – similar to the tactics of opposition supporters employed during protests in neighboring Belarus – could prevent Russian police from interfering and allowing anyone to participate, Volkov wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
The protest will coincide with Valentine’s Day, and Volkov titled his announcement “Love is stronger than fear.”
“You will pick up your phone’s flashlights – and someone, maybe, will bring candles – and you will form a heart shape with them … You will take a picture of him from above, from one of the apartments and you will post it on Instagram. Let’s have social media streams full of thousands of bright hearts from dozens of Russian cities, “Volkov wrote. “Without OMON (riot police), without fear.”
Navalny, 44, an anti-corruption investigator and a major critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on January 17 on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nervous breakdown. he blames the Kremlin. The Russian authorities rejected the accusation.
His arrest and imprisonment sparked national protests, with tens of thousands gathering in Russia for two weekends in a row, in the largest outburst of dissatisfaction in recent years.
The Russian authorities responded with harsh repression. More than 11,000 people were detained and hundreds were sentenced to prison. Several of Navalny’s close allies face criminal charges and are under house arrest.
Last week, a Moscow court ruled that while Navalny was recovering in Germany, he violated the probation conditions of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money laundering conviction and ordered him to serve two and eight years. months in prison. Even before this decision, Navalny rejected the 2014 political persecution conviction, calling the European Court of Human Rights “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.”
Following heavy police crackdowns, Volkov said protests should be interrupted until spring, as trying to hold rallies every weekend would only lead to many more arrests.
However, on Tuesday, he cited the need to “adopt something stronger than the fear” of repression and organize a demonstration that the police could not derail.
“We have already become the majority, but Putin is dividing us by cordons (riot police) so that we cannot see each other and see how many of us we are. We need to find a way to overcome this, “Volkov wrote.
Asked whether the opposition’s call to rally in court could be seen as inciting unauthorized protests, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “hard to say” but assured reporters that if anyone in Russia broke the law, , will be held accountable by law enforcement.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday accused Navalny’s allies of being NATO’s “agents of influence” and changed their minds about stopping protests after receiving instructions from members of the bloc. how to be “smarter” about continuing subversive work. “
Zakharova highlighted an online conference with EU, US and UK officials attended by Volkov and another Navalny associate, Vladimir Ashurkov, on Monday. Volkov said on Twitter that sanctions against Russian officials and individual tycoons were discussed at the event.
Navalny’s arrest and imprisonment have heightened tensions between Russia and the European Union. European leaders have called for the release of the opposition leader, and several European nations have suggested imposing additional sanctions on Moscow.
The Kremlin has said it will not listen to Western criticism of Navalny’s conviction and police actions against his supporters.