Putin-critic Alexei Navalny has been jailed for 30 days for organizing public meetings. Hundreds of people have reportedly been detained at unauthorized rallies in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Image: Reuters/S. Karpukhin
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained by police outside his Moscow home on Monday ahead of an anti-government rally he was going to hold in central Moscow.
The Simonovsky district court ruled after midnight Monday that Navalny be jailed for 30 days for repeatedly violating the law on organizing public meetings.
Navalny's wife announced the arrest on Twitter around 40 minutes before the protests were due to start. "Hello, this is Yulia Navalnaya," she wrote. "Alexei has been detained in the stairwell."
The protests will still go ahead, she added.
In a subsequent tweet, she posted a photo of Navalny being escorted into a police car.
Russian authorities had warned that Navalny could face 15 days in prison for failing to follow police orders and violating public order after he called supporters to hold unauthorized protests on Moscow's main avenue.
Thousands of young Russians marked Monday's patriotic Russia Day holiday by rallying against government corruption and exerting pressure on President Vladimir Putin. Russia Day commemorates the establishment of the Russian sovereign state in 1990, a year prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Q&A with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
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Navalny's team said they had expected some 45,000 to 50,000 people at the Moscow rally alone. Navalny's key demographic among his supporters includes teenagers and students who have grown up only knowing Putin's rule. Despite his arrest, reports from global media outlets showed that demonstrators across the country were undeterred.
There were reports from Russian NGO OVD-Info suggest that around 120 protestors had been detained by riot police in Moscow's central Pushkin Square. Witnesses reported that pepper spray had been used to disperse protestors.
Another 130 protestors were reportedly arrested in St Petersburg after holding an unsanctioned opposition protest in the city's Mars Field. Later reports suggested that up to 1,000 people may have been arrested, but that number could not be confirmed.
Later on Monday, the White House made a rare statement against the government of Vladmir Putin, saying that Moscow should "immediately release all peaceful protesters" from jail.
"The Russian people deserve a government that supports an open marketplace of ideas, transparent and accountable governance, equal treatment under the law and the ability to exercise their rights without fear of retribution," said Sean Spicer, press secretary for President Donald Trump.
Protest location changed
The arrest is likely linked to Navalny's announcement late on Sunday that he would change the location of the protest from Sakharova Street, located far away from the Moscow's city center, to Tverskaya Street, Moscow's main avenue near the Kremlin.
City authorities had authorized the protest at Sakharova Street. However, Navalny had claimed that authorities had pressured firms into refusing to build a stage at the agreed upon venue, as well as supply his team with sound and video equipment.
Moving the protest venue would likely make it illegal in the eyes of Russia's authorities and prompted fears of violence.
Riot police have begun making arrests at the anti-corruption protest organised by Navalny.Image: Reuters/T. Makeyeva
Following the change of location, Moscow authorities warned that "any provocative actions from the protesters' side will be considered a threat to public order and will be immediately suppressed."
Presidential hopes
The protests are part of Navalny's whistle-stop tour of Russia, as he seeks to run for the Russian presidency next year. However, polls suggest that he would have scant chance of winning, if he were even allowed to run at all. A controversial past conviction on graft charges is likely to keep him off the ballot. His latest arrest casts further doubts over his eligibility to run.
A spokeswoman for Navalny tweeted shortly after his arrest that electricity to his campaign offices in Moscow had been cut off.
Who is Alexei Navalny?
Alexei Navalny is one of Russia's most prominent opposition leaders, having spearheaded protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has been imprisoned in Russia since 2021.
Image: Imago Images/Itar-Tass/S. Fadeichev
Face of Russia's opposition
The lawyer-turned-political campaigner has been among the most prominent figures of Russia's opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Navalny came to prominence in 2008, when his blog exposing malpractice in Russian politics and among the country's major state-owned companies came to public attention. Revelations published on his blog even led to resignations, a rarity in Russian politics.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/TASS/V. Sharifulin
Disputed parliamentary elections
In 2011 Navalny was arrested for the first time. He ended up spending 15 days in prison for his role at a rally outside the State Duma in Moscow. A recent parliamentary election victory for Putin's United Russia had been marred by instances of ballot stuffing, reported by demonstrators on social media. Upon his release, Navalny pledged to continue the protest movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Stenin
Second jail term
After being reelected president in 2012, Putin ordered Russia's Investigative Committee to launch a criminal inquiry into Navalny's past. The following year the campaigner was charged and sentenced again, this time for five years, for alleged embezzlement in the city of Kirov. However, he was released the following day pending affirmation from a higher court. The sentence was later suspended.
Image: Reuters
Anti-Kremlin platform grows
Despite being embroiled in legal troubles, Navalny was allowed to run in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. A second-place finish behind Putin ally Sergei Sobyanin was seen as an overwhelming success and galvanized the Russian opposition movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Navalny takes to social media
His anti-Kremlin rhetoric led Navalny to be banned from appearing on Russian state-owned television. That forced him to deliver his political message over social media and his blog. His talent for public speaking, punchy use of language and humorous mockery of Putin and his loyalists mobilized a legion of young followers.
Image: Alexei Navalny/Youtube
Presidential ambitions
In December 2016, the opposition leader announced the formal start of his campaign to run for the Russian presidency in March 2018. However, repeated accusations of corruption, which his supporters say are politically motivated, ultimately barred him from running for public office.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/K. Kudryavtsev
Moscow's biggest protests in 6 years
In February 2017, anti-corruption rallies across dozens of Russian cities led to the arrests of over 1,000 demonstrators, including Navalny. The protests, believed to have been the largest in the Russian capital since 2012, were spurred by a report published by Navalny linking Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to a property empire valued at billions of euros. Navalny was released 15 days later.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Evgeny Feldman for Alexey Navalny's campaign
Physically assaulted
Navalny was assaulted and hospitalized in April 2017 after being hit in the eye with a chemical green dye. The attack permanently damaged his right cornea. Navalny accused Russian authorities of stopping him from seeking medical treatment abroad due to the embezzlement conviction against him. He was eventually permitted by the Kremlin human rights council to travel to Spain for eye surgery.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Feldman
Repeated arrests
In 2018, Navalny was jailed for 30 days. After his release in September, he faced another 20-day stint. In April 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Russia had violated Navalny's rights by holding him under house arrest for most of 2014 during the Kirov embezzlement case.
Image: Reuters/M. Shemetov
Alleged poisoning
In July 2019, only weeks after being released from a 10-day jail sentence, Navalny was again jailed for 30 days for violating Russia's strict protest laws. The opposition leader accused Russia of poisoning him with an allergic agent while in jail.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/navalny.com
Raids and frozen assets
Using YouTube and social media, Navalny had amassed a following of millions by late December 2019. Then police raided his Anti-Corruption Foundation headquarters (pictured), detaining him in the process. His staff said officials wanted to confiscate their tech equipment. Just a few months later, in March, Navalny reported that his bank accounts and those of his family members had been frozen.
Image: Reuters/FBK Handout
A plane — and a coma
On August 20, Navalny's spokesperson announced the activist became violently ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing, and Navalny was rushed to a hospital in Russia's Omsk and later evacuated to Berlin's Charite clinic (pictured). Doctors said he was in a coma. Navalny's associates claimed he had been poisoned and pointed to previous attacks on the activist.
Image: Reuters/C. Mang
Back from the brink
Navalny was taken out of the coma less than three weeks later and was said to be responsive. Not long afterwards, he was posting on Instagram, saying he was slowly regaining strength following weeks of only being "technically alive." The German government said labs in France and Sweden both confirmed that Navalny had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
Navalny had promised to return to Russia and he did so, despite warnings that he would be arrested. He was taken into police custody shortly after arriving in Moscow. The dissident had said he was "not afraid of anything." He was ordered to spend two years and eight months in a penal colony for violating terms of his probation while recovering in Germany from his poisoning.
Image: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images
Further charges and years behind bars
Since being imprisoned in 2021, Navalny has faced even more charges and trials: in 2022, he was sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court, charges his supporters say are fabricated. Appearing via video from prison during a court hearing this spring, Navalny said he was now being charged with new alleged crimes that would further extend his time in prison.
Image: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo/picture alliance
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The scale and geographical reach of Monday's protests will show whether Navalny's movement can continue to pressure the Kremlin, after similar protests in March were shut down. Authorities arrested Navalny and kept him detained for two weeks. Around 1,000 anti-government protestors were also arrested
The latest demonstrations should also indicate whether the lawyer-turned-political activist can collect the 300,000 signatures needed to stand a chance of running in next year's presidential race.
With the protests being held on a public holiday, turnout is expected to be high.
April's green liquid attack left Navalny with permanently damaged sight.Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Feldman
Putin's headache
Navalny has been a bane for the Russian government since he finished second in the Moscow mayoral race in 2013 on an anti-Putin platform. That success effectively cemented his place as Russian's top opposition leader.
However, Navalny's quest for the presidency has suffered repeated setbacks and hurdles, including repeated physical assaults. In April he required medical treatment after he had caustic green liquid thrown in his face.
Despite the setbacks, Navalny has vowed to continue challenging the government. "We can only force them to register me," he told supporters. "It's clear as day Putin doesn't want to come out to debate with me."
