US “Immediate release of Navalni-Protest crackdown should also be stopped”

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalni posted a video of a speech on YouTube while waiting for a hearing at the Kimki police station outside Moscow on January 18, 2021. Navalni was sentenced to detention on the 30th. © AFP=News1

The US government condemned the detention of more than 2,000 protesters on the streets against the opposition leader Alexey Navalni, who had been arrested and imprisoned by the Russian authorities, and urged their release.

The US State Department issued a statement on the night of the 23rd and urged it. The State Department said, “The Russian authorities free all those arrested to ensure the exercise of their universal human rights, and urge the immediate and unconditional release of Navalni.” I will be shoulder to shoulder.”

Navalni is considered President Vladimir Putin’s greatest enemy. After drinking black tea containing nobichok-based poisons developed by the former Soviet Union at the airport in August last year, he fell unconscious and returned home on the 17th of this month after 6 months of treatment in Berlin, Germany. Navalni has claimed that Russian intelligence agencies attempted to poison him before the elections this year, and he was arrested upon returning to Korea.

When Navalni was arrested, tens of thousands of Russian citizens responded. Warnings were issued against police forceful suppression and street protests in 107 cities in Russia, but they were helpless. The number of protesters revealed by the Russian police is about 4,000, but Reuters estimates that it will reach 40,000, 10 times more.

On the 23rd (local time), Russian citizens who support Alexei Navalni are protesting and clashing with the police. © Reuters = News 1

According to the Russian human rights watchdog OVD-Info, police arrested 2131 people in Moscow and 309 people in St. Petersburg. Among them, Navalni’s wife, Julia, was released a few hours later.

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