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The Russia-wide protests for the release of the detained Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have reached the capital Moscow.

Police arrested several demonstrators on Saturday afternoon, as a reporter from the German Press Agency reported on site.

Navalny's closest colleague, the lawyer Lyubow Sobol, was also arrested.

Many of the thousands of protesters were young and middle-class.

In contrast to unauthorized rallies in the past, the central Pushkin Square was not cordoned off in large areas.

Activists complained that the internet was being throttled.

Navalny's supporters called for protests in more than 90 Russian cities this Saturday.

They are demanding the release of the opposition activist, who was sentenced to 30 days in prison on Monday in a controversial urgent procedure.

Navalny allegedly violated reporting requirements in previous criminal proceedings while recovering from a poison attack in Germany.

The 44-year-old and his team see the judiciary's actions as politically motivated.

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“Putin is a thief,” shouted the people in Moscow - as they did in many other cities in the country, where the protests took place several hours earlier than in the capital due to the time difference.

At the beginning of the week, Navalny's team published an unveiling video entitled “A Palace for Putin”, which is supposed to prove that the president had a “tsarist empire” built on the Black Sea with bribes.

The Kremlin describes the allegations in the film, which has been viewed more than 67 million times, as "nonsense" and "lies".

Nationwide, the civil rights organization OWD counted 369 arrests by the afternoon.

But there were also reports from security forces who did not intervene, but let the people march.

The Russian authorities are threatening heavy fines for participating in the unauthorized rallies on Saturday.

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Video footage from Vladivostok on the Pacific coast showed 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 the poison attack, people are said to have gathered for the largest unauthorized demonstration in years.

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

He had recovered in Germany from poisoning with a chemical warfare agent from the Novitschok group developed during the Soviet era.

Navalny blames Russian President Vladimir Putin personally for the poison 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.

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.