display

Despite official warnings, supporters of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny demonstrated on Saturday in eastern Russia for his release.

They are planning a nationwide protest day that the security authorities have declared illegal and want to prevent.

Video footage from Vladivostok on the Pacific coast shows police officers chasing a group of demonstrators through the streets.

In the city of Khabarovsk, near the border with China, protesters gathered when temperatures were well below freezing.

They shouted “Shame!” And “Bandits!”.

In the Siberian city of Tomsk, where Navalny was the victim of a poison attack in August, people are said to have gathered for the largest unauthorized demonstration in years.

By Saturday lunchtime Moscow time, the civil rights organization OWD counted 125 arrests in cities where the protests had been scheduled several hours earlier than in the capital due to the time difference.

In Moscow, where a large demonstration has been announced for 12 p.m. Central European time, the police put up barriers on Pushkin Square in the city center.

Nawalny's wife Julia also wants to take part in the demonstration.

Here you will find content from Twitter

In order to interact with or display content from Twitter and other social networks, we need your consent.

Activate social networks

I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.

This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party providers.

This may require the storage of cookies on your device.

More information can be found here.

display

The 44-year-old lawyer and opposition politician Navalny returned to Moscow from Germany on Sunday and was arrested immediately after arriving at the airport.

On Monday, a court sentenced him to 30 days' arrest for violating probation conditions.

Navalny had been poisoned in August of last year with a chemical warfare agent developed by the Novichok group, which was developed during the Soviet era, and had spent months in Germany for treatment.

He blames Russian President Vladimir Putin personally for the attack.

The Kremlin rejects participation.

Police are blocking a square in Khabarovsk, around 6,000 kilometers east of Moscow

Source: AP / Igor Volkov

In Vladivostok, a protester is pushed to the ground by police

Source: REUTERS

Police arrest a woman during a rally in Moscow

Source: REUTERS

After his arrest, Navalny called for nationwide protests for his release.

The police announced a crackdown on the protest participants.

There had already been several arrests in Nawalny's environment.

The Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday that it was investigating the call for unauthorized protests.

display

Navalny's close ally Leonid Volkov told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” that street protests were “the only means in Russia to get someone out of prison”.

It has also happened that Russian opposition activists have been poisoned twice in a row.

Therefore “the only protection” for Navalny is “maximum visibility and support in the population”.

Russia has forbidden interference from abroad because of the protests.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the US embassy in Moscow, which had listed several demonstrations with exact meeting points and times.

Under the guise of concerns about the safety of US citizens abroad, Washington wants to fuel the protests in Russia, criticized Moscow.