RUSSIA BRACES FOR MORE PRO-NAVALNY PROTESTS

Sun 31 January 2021:

Russian police are bracing for more protests in support of detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny, despite a sweeping crackdown on Navalny’s allies during demonstrations a week ago.

The rallies are part of a campaign to win the release of President Vladimir Putin’s staunch opponent, who was arrested on Jan. 17 after returning from Germany. He had been recovering there from a nerve agent poisoning in Russia.

The protests following Navalny’s dramatic return to Moscow despite the threat of arrest put Putin in a quandary over how to respond. Polls show pent-up frustrations among Russians over years of falling wages and fallout from the pandemic.

Police have warned that Sunday’s protests have not been authorized and will be considered illegal and broken up as they were last weekend. They have also said demonstrators could spread COVID-19.

View of Novosibirsk protest march. #navalnyprotests https://t.co/XiCeEApYUI

— Chrystyna Lapychak (@chryslap) January 31, 2021

Çelyabinsk şehrinde polisin göstericilere müdahalesi. #navalnyprotests #Russia #Rusya #pazar #Putin @navalny https://t.co/Tx37J895Z8

— RusHaber (@rus_haber) January 31, 2021

Russian anti-Putin campaigner Alexei Navalny denounces his detention as “blatantly illegal” in appeal hearing https://t.co/q7fiz5TPdF pic.twitter.com/B5O9fA8YFa

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 29, 2021

Russian police are stepping up a crackdown on supporters of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny as they prepare for a second weekend of nationwide protests. pic.twitter.com/GuYJDjwKfG

— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) January 29, 2021

Anastasia Vasilyeva played Beethoven’s Für Elise as a musical accompaniment to police arriving to search her home. The Navalny supporter and head of the “Doctor’s Alliance” labor union is just one of many people subjected to searches ahead of protests planned for Sunday. pic.twitter.com/rDGtWBO4TW

— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) January 30, 2021

145 people detained so far at rallies demanding to free opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In Vladivostok, the Far East of Russia police & OMON officers chased people on ice after blocking access to the main city square pic.twitter.com/s52xVfWe8b

— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) January 31, 2021

Authorities have ordered seven metro stations in the center of Moscow to be shut on Sunday, while several streets around the seat of the government in the Kremlin will be blocked off.

Officers detained more than 4,000 people at last Saturday’s rallies, according to a protest monitoring group. Protesters in one city turned out in temperatures of -52 degrees Celsius. (-62 Fahrenheit)

In Moscow, police appeared to struggle to find enough jail space. One protester said authorities only found him a cell late on Wednesday after arresting him on Saturday.

This weekend, Navalny’s supporters in Moscow plan to gather near the Kremlin administration and the headquarters of the FSB, the KGB’s successor, where protesters in 1991 famously toppled a statue of the secret police’s founder during the Soviet breakup.

Additionally, police asked Moscow cafes to turn off their internet connections on Sunday, and businesses, restaurants and cafes in the areas around the protest zones will be shut.

Police were going to cafes in civilian clothes, showing their ID cards and asking to speak with managers about turning off internet connections ahead of the protests, Interfax news agency said.

The measures mark an attempt to reduce the possible routes and communication methods of protesters in the capital. Russian authorities are trying to prevent the demonstrations and reduce the number of people taking to the streets.

The 44-year-old opposition politician accuses Putin of ordering his murder, which the Kremlin denies.

Navalny is accused of parole violations which he says are trumped up. A court is due to meet next week to consider handing him a jail term of up to three and a half years.

The West has told Moscow to let Navalny go and his allies have appealed to US President Joe Biden to sanction 35 people who they say are Putin’s close allies.

To galvanize support at home in an online video viewed over 100 million times, Navalny has accused Putin of being the ultimate owner of a sumptuous Black Sea palace, something the Kremlin leader has denied.

The US embassy in Moscow warned Americans of the possibility of being arrested, listing the exact meeting place and times of the demonstrations, in a move which angered the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Protests are currently planned in around 80 cities. In Moscow, demonstrators plan to gather near the FSB domestic intelligence service headquarters near the Kremlin.

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent