Back to the prison cell for Alexei Navalny. The Russian opponent was sentenced on Wednesday, July 24, to 30 days' imprisonment, the maximum sentence, for "repeated violation of the rules of organization of the demonstrations", which require the approval of the authorities before any action of this type . This sentence comes in the midst of mounting protest due to rejection of opposition candidates in the September local elections.
A rally of unprecedented scale for several years took place on Sunday and the opposition, Alexei Navalny in the lead, called to protest again in front of the Moscow City Hall on Saturday, raising the tide in the run-up to these polls announce difficult for candidates supporting the Kremlin.
This protest, unauthorized, will take place without the 43-year-old anti-corruption activist, arrested Wednesday morning as he went out for a jog and bought flowers for his wife's birthday. "People are right when they say that sport is not always good for health," he said ironically.
"Go out on the street Saturday"
"30 days of detention, that's what I mean: go out on the street on Saturday (...) As long as we do not have the right to vote, we are all in detention anyway," said Alexei Navalny on Twitter.
The opposition announced in the wake that searches were conducted among several of its candidates turned against the election, including Ivan Jdanov, close collaborator Alexei Navalny, and the leading opponent Dmitry Gudkov. Russian justice on Wednesday launched an investigation for "obstructing the work of the Electoral Commission", due to a recent protest in front of its Moscow headquarters. Another collaborator of the opponent, Oleg Stepanov, was also arrested Wednesday and sentenced to 8 days of detention.
Unable to be a candidate himself because he is declared ineligible for condemnations that he denounces as political, Alexei Navalny has organized in recent years the most important demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin, which has regularly earned him sentences of short sentences.
Falling Popularity for Putin
Exceptionally high after the annexation of Crimea, the popularity of the Russian president has fallen since his reelection for a fourth term last year and polls in early September are difficult for candidates in power.
The registration of about 60 candidates in the local elections in Moscow was rejected last week, officially due to flaws in collecting the supporting signatures they need to run. These candidates denounce fabricated irregularities and accused the loyal mayor Sergei Sobyanin of wanting to stifle the opposition.
Opposition candidates have also seen their candidacies rejected in other big cities like St. Petersburg, where a protest brought together about 3,000 people on Wednesday night.
With AFP