Thousands of Russians defy crackdown to join anti-Putin protests

Thousands of Russians have defied a massive police presence to join a second round of nationwide protests against President Vladimir Putin and in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The largest of Sunday’s rallies were in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where riot police sealed off swathes of central streets and squares, shut down public transport and used batons and occasionally electroshock devices to detain or disperse unarmed protesters.

More than 4,000 people, including at least 82 journalists, were arrested during marches in dozens of towns and cities, according to monitor OVD-Info; eight days earlier, police detained a similar number of protesters around Russia, and several of Mr Navalny's main aides and organisers were placed under house arrest last week.

Police stopped demonstrators in Moscow from reaching the jail where Mr Navalny has been held since flying home on January 17th from Germany, where he recovered from a nerve-agent poisoning in Siberia that he blames on the Kremlin.

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His allies urged people to rally again on Tuesday, outside a Moscow court that is due to decide whether he should be jailed for breaching the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence by failing to report to Russian police while recuperating in Berlin.

“The arrest of Alexei Navalny is the peak of insanity for the security forces and personally for Vladimir Putin. After all, if they can jail an opposition leader whose fate is being watched by the whole world, what can they do with each of us and our family members?” the campaigner’s team said on Sunday.

“It was a peaceful march, and the only ones who violated law and order today are those who were obliged to protect it.”

Black Sea palace

Protesters from Kaliningrad on the Baltic to Vladivostok on the Pacific called for Mr Navalny’s release and denounced Mr Putin, who rejects the campaigner’s claims that he is the secret owner of a €1 billion palace on the Black Sea; a video report on the lavish estate has been viewed 105 million times on YouTube in less than a fortnight.

The fate of Mr Navalny (44) is already an irritant in relations between the Kremlin and the administration of new US president Joe Biden, and is expected to be discussed when the top EU and Russian diplomats meet in Moscow this week.

“The US condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight,” said US secretary of state Antony Blinken.

“We renew our call for Russia to release those detained for exercising their human rights, including Alexei Navalny.”

Washington blamed

Russian officials and diplomats – who deny the state had any role in the near-fatal poisoning of Mr Navalny – played down the size of the rallies and suggested Washington was behind the protests and had a role in the online exposé of “Putin’s palace”.

“Gross US interference in Russia’s internal affairs is as much a proven fact as is the spreading of fakes and calls for unauthorised protests by internet platforms controlled by Washington,” said Moscow’s foreign ministry.

“Support for the violation of the law by . . . Blinken is more confirmation of Washington’s behind-the-scenes role,” the ministry added. “There is no doubt that actions aimed at encouraging protests are part of a strategy to contain Russia.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he would discuss the Navalny case with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday.

“The relationship with Russia is one of the EU’s most complex. Recent developments only serve to further underline the need for me to visit Moscow. But beyond the issues of contention there are also areas in which the EU and Russia do co-operate, or need to co-operate more, that require our urgent attention,” he said.