Moscow (AP) – Moscow has prepared for several protests over the release of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who faces a court hearing on Tuesday after two weekends of nationwide rallies and thousands of arrests in the largest outburst of discontent in Russia in recent years.
Tens of thousands filled the streets of the vast country on Sunday, chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin and demanding freedom for Navalny, who was jailed last month and faces years in prison. More than 5,400 protesters have been detained by authorities, according to a human rights group.
One of those taken into custody for several hours was Navalny’s wife, Yulia, who was ordered on Monday to pay a fine of about $ 265 for attending an unauthorized rally.
While the state-run media dismissed the demonstrations as small and claimed they showed the failure of the opposition, Navalny’s team said the presence showed “overwhelming national support” for the Kremlin’s fiercest critic. His allies asked protesters to come to a Moscow court on Tuesday.
“Without your help, we will not be able to withstand the lawlessness of the authorities,” his politician’s team said in a post on social media.
Mass protests erupted in dozens of Russian cities for the second weekend in a row, despite authorities’ efforts to quell riots at the 44-year-old Navalny prison.
He was arrested on January 17 on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from the nerve poisoning he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities reject the accusation. He faces a prison sentence for alleged violations of probation, following a 2014 money laundering conviction, widely considered politically motivated.
Last month, the Russian penitentiary service filed a motion to replace the 3-and-a-half-year suspended sentence with one he must serve. The Attorney General’s Office upheld the motion on Monday, claiming that Navalny had engaged in “illegal conduct” during the probationary period.
Following his arrest, Navalny’s team released a two-hour video on YouTube claiming that an opulent Black Sea residence had been built for Putin. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times, further causing dissatisfaction among Russians amid an economic recession. The Kremlin says Putin has nothing to do with the residence, and the president himself made the allegations last week, saying that neither he nor his relatives own any of the property mentioned in the video.
The rallies after Navalny’s arrest seem to have shaken the Kremlin. In an attempt to quell the protests, authorities detained Navalny’s associates and activists across the country. His brother Oleg, main ally Lyubov Sobol and three others have been under house arrest for two months and are facing criminal charges of violating coronavirus restrictions.
On Tuesday, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh was also sent home for two months in connection with the same charge. Yarmysh was ordered to serve nine days in prison last month for violating protest regulations and was due to be released on Saturday, but was arrested again.
At least 40 criminal investigations have been opened in 18 Russian regions in connection with the protests, said Pavel Chikov, head of the human rights organization Agora.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing more than 5,400 protesters by police. The group said it was the largest number in its nine-year history of Putin-era record keeping.
At least 51 protesters were beaten by police while detained, OVD-Info said. Videos of the protests showed police against the riot hitting people with sticks and throwing them to the ground. The press reported that some policemen used stun guns on the protesters.
When asked about the mass arrests, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the protests were “illegal” and accused that “there are quite a number of hooligans, provocateurs with more or less aggressive behavior. to law enforcement officers ”.
“In response to the challenges, the police are also acting harshly within the law,” Peskov said.
The state media also highlighted the “aggressive actions” of the protesters in their coverage, which claimed that Sunday’s rallies attracted far fewer people than the previous ones on January 23. Many reports highlighted the “polite” actions of the police and the state channel Russia 1 even showed video statements of people thanking law enforcement officers in connection with the rallies.
Navalny’s imprisonment and repression of protests sparked international outrage, with Western officials demanding his release and condemning the arrests of protesters.
The German government demanded the immediate release of the arrested protesters, as well as Navalny. “It condemns the use of force by Russian security forces and the disproportionate action again against peaceful demonstrators,” said government spokeswoman Martina Fietz.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter that Washington “condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week in a row.” He also called for the release of Navalny and those detained “for the exercise of human rights.”
Russia’s foreign ministry rejected Blinken’s call as “a gross interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and accused Washington of trying to destabilize the situation by supporting the protests.