Russian police arrest nearly 2,000
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Russian police detained more than 1,800 people attending peaceful rallies in support of jailed opposition activist Alexei Navalny on Saturday, in a violent response to nationwide protests set to be the country’s largest in years.
Mr Navalny, president Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, was jailed this week upon returning from Germany where he had been recovering from an assassination attempt he says was ordered by the Kremlin, and calling on his supporters to hold rallies demanding his release.
Tens of thousands of Russians responded by braving sub-zero temperatures, an often violent police response, and official warnings of a harsh crackdown to flood the streets in 81 cities across the country.
In Moscow — where police said 4,000 people came to protest but Reuters estimated there were ten times as many — crowds stretched for kilometres in all directions from central Pushkin Square, clogging up sidewalks and blocking traffic as they spilled into the street.
As baton-wielding riot police in body armour and balaclavas moved in to arrest them, some protesters fended them off with snowballs or fought back to free detainees from custody. In Saint Petersburg, protesters breached a police barricade and marched through the city.
State media said that about 40 riot police in Moscow sustained minor injuries. The driver of a black car with government license plates and VIP beacon was hospitalised after protesters smashed his car and gouged out his eye, according to state newswire RIA Novosti.
Police had arrested 1,873 people by 4pm GMT, including 623 in Moscow and 268 in St Petersburg, according to independent watchdog OVD-Info.
Among them were Mr Navalny’s wife Yulia and top aide Lyubov Sobol, who were detained as soon as they arrived at the square. Ms Navalnaya was released a few hours later.
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Russian officials opened several criminal investigations into the rallies, while authorities in Moscow said that 19 people with coronavirus had attended, making the rallies a health hazard.
