Russian police have arrested more than 3,000 people in protests across the country calling for the release of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, the Kremlin’s most obvious enemy.
The unprecedented performances in more than 60 cities – in temperatures as low as -50 Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit) – increased as Navalny built influence far beyond the political and cultural centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In Moscow, about 15,000 demonstrators gathered around and around Pushkin Square in the city center, where fights took place with police and demonstrators were dragged away by helmet riot officers to police buses and trucks grip. Some were beaten with a baton.
Navalny’s wife Yulia was among those arrested.
The protests stretched over mainland Russia, from the island city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk north of Japan and the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk, where temperatures were dropping to -50C, to cities- much more populous than Russia.
Navalny and his anti-corruption campaign have built a vast network of support despite the government’s official forecast and the constant avoidance of state media.
Navalny was arrested on January 17 on his return to Moscow from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from the poisoning of a near-killing agent, who blamed the Kremlin. . Russian authorities have denied the allegation.
Authorities say he remained in Germany on a prison sentence in a criminal conviction in 2014, while Navalny said he was convicted of fabricated charges.