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| A man protesting the release of Navalni in Vladivostok, Russia on the 31st, is being arrested by police. © Reuters = News 1 |
‘Ann Putin’ protests were held across Russia on Sunday, the 31st, calling for the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalni.
Reuters reported that protesters gathered in Vladivostok, Russia’s Far East, at around 12 p.m. (local time) on this day, despite a strong cold of -13 degrees Celsius and shouted “Putin is a thief.”
Even in Tomsk, Siberia, where Navalni visited before his loss of consciousness due to poisoning, protesters were spotted waving Russian flags and shouting slogans, “Free Navalni.”
OVD-Info, a Russian human rights monitoring organization, announced that a total of 261 people have been detained for the protests.
However, the largest demonstration on this day is scheduled to be held in Moscow, the capital, around 6 pm Korean time. Navalni claimed that over 50,000 people participated in the protests in Moscow alone last weekend.
According to Reuters, police were concentrated in the center of Moscow that day, restricting the movement of citizens, and seven subway stations were closed.
Earlier, Russian authorities denied large-scale gatherings due to concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), but Navalni supporters did not accept it.
Navalni, who is considered the static of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested and detained as soon as he returned to Korea on the 17th, five months after receiving treatment in Germany after being addicted to poison in August last year.
Navalni pointed to the Russian government as the reason behind the incident, but President Putin denied it and explained that if they had intended, Navalni would have been killed by completing the mission.