Security forces in front of the monument in tribute to the poet Alexander Pushkin, before a rally in support of the opponent Alexeï Navalny, January 23, 2021. -

Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

The Moscow police multiplied this Saturday the arrests of people who came to Pushkin Square, in the center of the Russian capital, before a demonstration at the call of the imprisoned opponent Alexeï Navalny.

An hour before the rally scheduled for 2 p.m. (12 p.m. in Paris), the riot police, present in large numbers, arrested one by one people they suspect of wanting to join the demonstration, locking them in cell vans, according to AFP journalists.

At least 20 people were arrested, without clashes, in front of a crowd of journalists.

The Moscow security forces had warned that they would disperse "without delay" any illegal gathering.

At least 200 arrests elsewhere in Russia

Elsewhere in Russia, at least 200 people have been arrested during protests that have brought together hundreds of people in many cities and have been brutally dispersed.

The Russian police had already arrested this week, ahead of the mobilizations, leading allies of Alexeï Navalny, two of whom were sentenced Friday to short prison terms.

Detained until at least February 15 and targeted by several legal proceedings, Alexeï Navalny, 44, was arrested on January 17, upon his return from Germany, after five months of convalescence following an alleged poisoning of which he accuses the Kremlin.

His call to demonstrate, after his imprisonment, was accompanied by a two-hour video investigation in which he accuses Vladimir Putin of having had a sumptuous mansion built for a billion euros on a huge property on the banks of the river. black Sea.

It has been viewed nearly 67 million times since Tuesday.

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