MOSCOW (RUSSIA) – Police took under arrest more than 3,000 people and exercised force to separate rallies across Russia on Saturday.
Navalny had urged his supporters to voice their protest after being arrested last weekend during his return to Russia from Germany for the first time.
The authorities had strictly released order that people stay away from Saturday’s demonstrations. They added that they risked getting exposed to COVID-19 as well as prosecution and possible jail time for being part of an unauthorised event.
Navalny’s wife Yulia was detained briefly during the rally, after which she was released. While some of Navalny’s political allies were detained in the days before the protest, others were arrested on the same day.
According to the OVD-Info protest monitor group, 3,296 people, including 1,294 in Moscow and 489 in St Petersburg, had been taken under detention at rallies in around 100 towns and cities.
The United States slammed the incident, which according to it were “harsh tactics” used against protesters and journalists and demanded Navalny’s “immediate and unconditional” release.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, “We call on Russian authorities to release all those detained for exercising their universal rights.”
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a post on Twitter that he deplored the authorities “disproportionate use of force”, while Britain’s foreign minister, Dominic Raab, condemned the “use of violence against peaceful protesters and journalists”.
Navalny, a 44-year-old lawyer, is in a Moscow prison awaiting the outcome of four legal matters. He has alleged President Vladimir Putin of giving orders for his attempted murder. Putin has dismissed the remarks against him, and in turn alleging Navalny is part of a US-backed dirty tricks campaign to defame him.
Some protesters marched on the prison, where police were waiting to arrest them.
One Moscow protester, Sergei Radchenko, 53, said: “I’m tired of being afraid. I haven’t just turned up for myself and Navalny, but for my son because there is no future in this country.”
There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin, which had previously claimed that the protests against law and the work of “provocateurs”.
In Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, almost 1,000 people took to demonstrations against Navalny’s arrest. Small demonstrations were also conducted in Bulgaria and some 200-300 people protested in Paris.
Police in Siberia’s Yakutsk, one of the coldest cities in the world, where the temperature was -52 Celsius (-62 F) on Saturday, got hold of a protester by his arms and legs and dragged him into a van, as shown by a video footage.
In Moscow, some journalists covering the protests were also detained, drawing a rebuke from the US Embassy.
Spokesperson Rebecca Ross said on Twitter, “Russian authorities arresting peaceful protesters, journalists. Appears to be a concerted campaign to suppress free speech, peaceful assembly.”
Navalny’s allies look forward to the polls, as there are pent-up frustrations among the public for years regarding falling wages and economic fallout from the pandemic.