(GNB Desk): Hundreds of people have reportedly been detained as a series of demonstrations in support of jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny begins across Russia.
Arrests have been made during demonstrations in support of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader.
Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, put out the call for nationwide protests after he was detained last week on arrival to Russia from Germany where he had been recuperating from a near-fatal attack caused by the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok. Learn more.
Thousands of people are expected to protest throughout the country. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, is currently being detained following an impromptu trial after flying back to Moscow. He faces further legal action.
According to monitoring group OVD-INFO, more than 200 people have so far been detained in central and eastern Russia because of the protests, with more than 100 held in Moscow, according to witnesses, the location for one of up to 70 marches this weekend.
Russia’s media watchdog had also issued a warning to social media platforms that hosted calls for a large turnout at Saturday’s demonstrations. One tweeted video, apparently filmed in Moscow, is said to show an ally of Mr Navalny, the lawyer Lyubov Sobol, being grabbed by police and dragged away while taking part in a TV interview.
Video of the moment when Navalny ally/lawyer Lyubov Sobol is grabbed by riot cops while speaking in Moscow
Navalny’s wife Yulia also arrested, she said via Instagram post.
This is (reportedly) the moment when Yulia Navalnaya was taken away by police
Russia’s telecommunications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has urged social-media networks, including the video-sharing app TikTok, to stop the spreading of posts by users that call on Russia’s youth to take part in “illegal” public gatherings, such as one planned for this weekend to support Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.
In a January 20 statement, which was also placed on the VKontakte social network, Roskomnadzor said the request to TikTok had been sent at the request of the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
“Materials are being spread via TikTok, calling young users of the social network to take part in illegal mass protest events,” the statement says.
“We request that you immediately take comprehensive measures to prevent the distribution of such unlawful information on the TikTok platform,” it added.
Roskomnadzor’s statement comes two days after opposition politician Navalny called on supporters and other Russians to start street protests following his arrest on January 17.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, was detained and later jailed for alleged parole violations upon his return to Russia after being treated in Germany because he was poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent in August.
The 44-year-old accuses Putin of ordering his assassination and has called on Russians to “take to the streets” to protest against his detention. His team has called for a nationwide protest on January 23.
The Kremlin denies any role in Navalny’s poisoning.
Russian law prohibits calling on anyone under the age of 18 to attend unauthorized street protests. At the time the law was approved in 2018, Navalny said it was designed to impede his own activities.
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