Thousands of supporters of Alexei Navalny have begun protesting in cities across Russia to call for the release of the opposition leader from prison.
Demonstrators gathered in cities and towns in Siberia and the east with rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg scheduled to start at 2pm local time (1100 GMT).
Police have arrested more than 167 people, according to the OVD-Info website, as the Kremlin tries to break the rallies out of control by force. The protests are likely to be the largest in the country since 2017.
Second wheel
(@Andrew__Roth)Pro-Navalny protests have begun in the Far East and now in Siberia, where 100s and 1000s are coming out. Its size could affect whether he is released from prison. Pics and vid coming out of Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, even Yakutsk, where it is -50C. To date 56 arrests have been made. pic.twitter.com/PZSZbgteVU
Several thousand protesters took to the streets in the eastern port city of Vladivostok, as well as hundreds of others in nearby Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk. That area has been a protest since the arrest of Khabarovsk governor Sergei Furgal last year.
Police video showed rioting with helmets and clubs running into crowds in Vladivostok while authorities cleared the streets. Vladivostok is seven hours ahead of Moscow and the treatment of protesters there may consider how they will be treated in the largest cities in European Russia.
Many more came out in cities across Siberia, with thousands in the city of Novosibirsk and hundreds in Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, and even dozens in Yakutsk, where temperatures dropped as low as -50C (-58F). In Irkutsk, protesters shouted: “We will not go!” Some in Omsk had a pair of supporters of FSB poisoning suspected Navalny in August last year.
The biggest protest rallies are expected in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where police have already raided major squares to evict the crowd. Russian media have also reported seeing heavy armored vehicles on the outskirts of Moscow, although it was unclear whether they were related to the protests.
Navalny’s friends have said the rallies are their best chance to get the Kremlin liberated.
Navalny was arrested on Sunday after returning from overseas treatment following the poisoning attempt, which was found in Russia’s FSB security service. An earlier sentencing parole board could be overturned and sent to a penal colony as early as the end of January.
The mayor’s office of Moscow has told the public not to attend the rallies and the powerful investigation committee has opened a criminal investigation into a flood of calls on social networks, including TikTok, Facebook and others, for young people coming in.
Authorities said social networks had complied with their requests to delete the content, saying TikTok had deleted 38% of posts promoting the rallies and YouTube and VKontakte had 50% of similar posts eliminated underage activists.
In remarks from a prison in Moscow released on Friday night, Navalny told supporters that he was in good spirits and, in case something mysterious happened to him, that he was emotional and did not he intended to harm himself. “I know for sure there are a lot of good people outside my prison, and help is on the way,” he said.
Born in 1976 just outside Moscow, Alexei Navalny is a lawyer-turned activist and the Anti-Corruption Foundation explores the richness of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
He started out as a Russian nationalist, but emerged as a major leader against the Russian Democrat during the wave of protests that led to the 2012 primary school election, and has been a thorn in the side of the Kremlin ever since.
Navalny is banned from appearing on state television, but he has used social media to good effect. A 2017 documentary accusing the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, of corruption received more than 30m views on YouTube within two months.
He was re-arrested and imprisoned. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia violated Navalny’s rights by detaining him in 2014. He was barred by election officials from running for president in 2018 on conviction obscene he says was politically motivated. Navalny told the commission that his decision would be a vote not against me, but against the 16,000 people I have named; against 200,000 volunteers who have been canvassing for me ‘.
A corporate price has also been paid. In April 2017, he was attacked with a green color that was almost blinding in one eye, and in July 2019 he was taken from prison to hospital with symptoms that one of his doctors said could prevent poisoning. In 2020, he was re-hospitalized after being poisoned, and taken to Germany for treatment. The German government later stated that toxicology results showed Navalny had been poisoned by zero agent Novichok.
Police have arrested a Navalny news secretary, two lawyers and a chief investigator who helped prepare an investigation into a £ 1bn Black Sea palace said to have been controlled by Putin’s friends and companies. state. On Friday, the video of the study was viewed 50m times on YouTube.
Navalny supporters were also arrested in Krasnodar, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok and cities across Russia, as protest coordinators planned rallies in at least 65 cities and towns.
Navalny news secretary Kira Yarmysh said police threatened to break down her door while detaining her before the protests. She continued to tweet from arrest, saying that attending the shows was “everyone’s responsibility, if we want the wealth, freedom and well-being of our country. And until Alexei and everyone are illegally behind free bars.
“January 23 is supposed to be mythical,” she wrote from a prison cell before signing for the night.
Navalny could be sent to a prison colony if a parole board decides to review a three-and-a-half-year sentence handed down in 2014. Russian investigators are also preparing criminal cases to could carry more than ten years in prison if Navalny is sentenced.
Opposition rallies have attracted more young Russians, many teenagers among them, since the Navalny Anti-Corruption Fund began releasing online searches on senior politicians and others close to Putin. In 2017, protests that were largely present at young Russians closed Tverskaya Street in central Moscow after Navalny released an investigation into the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev.
Influencers on TikTok and other social networks have come out in support of the rally, citing warnings from Russia’s general prosecutor that social networks should downplay or fine the content. them or other sanctions.
In one viral video, an English teacher, @neurolera, gives advice on how people can pretend to be American tourists if caught by the police. “You are violating my human rights!” She says with special American amazement. And if all else fails, she said, then tell the police: “I’m going to call my lawyer.”
On Friday, the Moscow city police department said it would prosecute anyone who asks people to engage in the protests “in the media, on the internet, and on social networks”. In particular, the city’s prosecutor cited calls for “small children to take part in major riots”.
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin’s press secretary, said on Friday that the investigation into Putin’s premises and the Black Sea was a “lie” and a “cut and fold” operation.