MOSCOW (AP) – Russian police have issued a strong warning against participating in protests planned on Sunday to demand the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent enemy.
The warning comes amid apprehensions by Navalny opposition associates and journalists and a police plan to restrict traffic in central Moscow on Sunday.
Navalny was arrested on January 17 after flying back to Russia from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from nervous breakdown. His detention sparked nationwide protests a week ago in about 100 cities; almost 4,000 people were arrested.
The next demonstration in Moscow is planned for Lubyanka Square. The Federal Security Service, which Navalny claims is arranging to poison him with a Soviet-era nerve agent on behalf of the Kremlin, is headquartered in the market. The Russian government has denied a role in poisoning the 44-year-old.
The city’s police department said much of central Moscow from the Red Square to Lubyanka would have pedestrian restrictions and that seven nearby subway stations would be closed on Sunday. Also, the restaurants in the area are to be closed, and the iconic GUM store in Red Square said it will only open in the evening.
Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk quoted the coronavirus pandemic in a warning on Saturday against the protests. She said participants found to be in violation of epidemiological regulations could be prosecuted.
The January 23 protests in support of Navalny were the largest and most widespread seen in Russia for many years, and authorities tried to prevent a repeat. Police raided the apartments and offices of Navalny’s family, associates and anti-corruption organization this week.
His brother Oleg, senior assistant Lyubov Sobol and three others were arrested at home for two months on Friday as part of a criminal investigation into alleged violations of coronavirus regulations during protests last weekend.
Sergei Smirnov, editor of the news site Mediazona, which was founded by members of the punk collective Pussy Riot, was detained by police when he left home on Saturday. No charges have been filed against him.
Navalny fell into a coma on August 20 while on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow. He was transferred to a hospital in Berlin two days later. Laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden, as well as tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, have established that he was exposed to the nerve agent Novichok.
Russian authorities have refused to open a full-fledged criminal investigation, citing a lack of evidence that he had been poisoned.
Navalny was arrested when he returned to Russia on the grounds that his months of recovery in Germany violated the terms of a suspended sentence he received in a 2014 conviction for fraud and money laundering, a case he says it was political revenge.
Right after his arrest, Navalny’s team released a two-hour video on its YouTube channel about a lavish residence built for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The property offers facilities such as a “water disco”, a hookah lounge equipped for watching pole dancing and a casino. The video has been viewed over 100 million times and has inspired a stream of sarcastic jokes on the internet.
Putin said neither he nor any of his close relatives owned the property, and the Kremlin insisted it had nothing to do with the president, even though he was protected by the federal FSO bodyguard, which provides security for government officials.
Russian state television later aired a report from the complex showing it under construction and included an interview with an engineer who claimed the building would be a luxury hotel.
On Saturday, construction mogul Arkady Rotenberg, a close associate of Putin and his occasional judo partner, claimed ownership.