Alexei Navalny organized the ‚He is not our czar‘ rallies to protest Putin re-election in March.
More than 350 people — including prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny — were arrested Saturday in Russia a day of nationwide protests of the upcoming inauguration of Vladimir Putin for a new six-year term as president, according to a group that monitors political repression.
Navalny, a long-time Putin nemesis and anti-corruption campaigner, organized the nationwide rallies under the slogan „He is not our czar“ in response to the president’s re-election in March.
In Moscow, where thousands crowded into Moscow Pushkin Square, police in riot gear waded into the crowd and were seen grabbing some demonstrators and leading them away, but there were no immediate moves to disperse the crowd. A helicopter hovered overhead to monitor the crowd.
Interfax News reports that police began detaining demonstrators after declaring the rally as unauthorized.
In St. Petersburg, police blocked off a large section of the main avenue and arrested demonstrators taking part in the rally.
Video posted on Navalny’s YouTube channel showed the wide Nevsky Prospekt avenue blocked off around Gostiny Dvor, the sprawling trade complex that is one of the city’s landmarks.
A crowd estimated at more than 1,000 had earlier begun marching down Nevsky. There was no immediate tally of the number of arrests in St. Petersburg.
OVD-Info, which tracks political repressions, said more than 50 people were arrested in Moscow, including protest organizer Alexei Navalny, a relentless the anti-corruption campaigner and dogged Putin foe.
Протесты в Питере https://t.co/vETictkpBa
The OVD-Info group said the largest number of arrests as of Saturday mid-afternoon was in Chelyabinsk, where 97 people were detained. It said in a protest in Yakutsk in the far northeast, 75 were detained but all have since been released.
Contributing: Associated Press
