Dozens of people were arrested Saturday, January 23 in Russia on the sidelines of demonstrations organized across the country at the call of supporters of the opponent Alexeï Navalny to demand his release, despite multiple pressures from the authorities.

From Moscow to Vladivostok, the team of the notorious anti-corruption activist, victim of suspected poisoning this summer, has issued calls for a rally in 65 Russian cities.

Иркутск: "Мы не уйдём!"

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- Борис Золотаревский (@ZolotorevskiyB) January 23, 2021

The first demonstrations took place on Saturday in the Russian Far East, where several thousand people took to the streets in Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, and large police forces were deployed in front of the demonstrators, according to supporters of Alexey Navalny. 

About 125 protesters were arrested in 20 Russian cities at around 8 a.m. GMT, according to the NGO OVD-info, which specializes in monitoring arrests on the sidelines of demonstrations.

In the capital, where opposition mobilization is usually strongest, protesters are scheduled to meet at 2:00 p.m. (11:00 GMT) in Pushkin Square.

Moscow police have already promised to "repress without delay" any unauthorized gathering. 

 The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, denounced the "unacceptable" demonstrations in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Instagram, Alexeï Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaïa, nevertheless announced her intention to demonstrate in Moscow for her husband who "never gives up".

Preventive arrests

As authorities have not authorized these gatherings, protesters across Russia face brutal arrests and prosecution.

Previous large opposition rallies in Moscow in the summer of 2019 led to thousands of arrests of peaceful protesters.

Several of them had been sentenced to heavy prison terms for alleged "violence" against the police.

As in 2019, the Russian police arrested this week, ahead of the mobilizations, leading allies of Alexei Navalny, two of whom were sentenced to short prison terms on Friday.

In the region, several coordinators of his movement were arrested after calling for demonstrations on Saturday.

Placed in detention until at least February 15 and targeted by several legal proceedings, Alexeï Navalny, 44, was arrested last Sunday, upon his return from Germany, after five months of convalescence.

At the end of August, he fell seriously ill in Siberia and was hospitalized urgently in Berlin, victim, according to him, of poisoning of the Russian secret services with a nerve agent.

Three European laboratories had also concluded with poisoning, which Moscow firmly denies, denouncing a plot.

Knowing that he risked prison, Alexeï Navalny had chosen to return to Russia with his wife.

Threats on TikTok and YouTube  

As soon as Alexei Navalny was arrested, condemned by the Western powers, his supporters, but also less politicized Russian celebrities, called for demonstrations for his release.

Thousands of calls for protest were relayed this week on social networks, where the opponent enjoys high visibility, while he is largely ignored by the main Russian state media.

To limit these calls to protest, the Russian telecommunications gendarme Roskomnadzor threatened with fines the platforms TikTok and Vkontakte (VK), the Russian equivalent of Facebook.

According to Roskomnadzor, these two social networks, but also YouTube, owned by Google, have since deleted some of the messages concerned.

While an investigation was opened for "inciting illegal acts against minors", the Ministry of Education called on parents to "prevent" their children from joining protests.

Using its weapon of choice, Alexeï Navalny's team tried to galvanize its troops by publishing on Tuesday a resounding investigation into a sumptuous property which would benefit President Vladimir Putin.

Called "Putin's Palace", this luxurious residence on the shores of the Black Sea would have cost, according to the opponent, more than a billion euros and would have been financed by relatives of the president.

Charges rejected by the Kremlin.

Friday evening, this long investigation had been viewed more than 60 million times on YouTube, an absolute record among the many surveys published in recent years by Alexeï Navalny.

With AFP

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