Alexei Navalny protests: Moscow in lockdown as
police detain thousands
Riot police and national guard troops close central
metro stations and block off streets
Andrew Roth
in Moscow
Mon 1 Feb
2021 01.00 GMT
Police have
paralysed the centres of Russia’s largest cities, including Moscow, as the
Kremlin sought to beat back rallies in support of jailed opposition leader
Alexei Navalny, the country’s most significant protests in a decade.
Supporters
of the Kremlin critic took to the streets to protest against his jailing,
despite the biting cold and threat of arrest. At least 5,100 people, including
Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, were detained as the rallies across the
country entered a second week.
Taking
unprecedented security measures, riot police and national guards troops shut
down seven central metro stations in Moscow and blocked off streets to prevent
a repeat of last week’s record protests, some of the largest since 2012.
UK foreign
secretary Dominic Raab accused authorities of detaining people “simply for
expressing their dissent”, adding: “We condemn the Russian authorities’
indiscriminate and arbitrary arrest of peaceful protesters and journalists.
The
unsanctioned protests deteriorated into a cat-and-mouse game as riot police
armed with batons and stun guns pursued protesters through the capital. The
hours-long chase was punctuated by clashes and brutal arrests. One man was
severely injured after dousing himself with petrol and setting himself on fire,
apparently in an act of protest. He was hospitalised in critical condition.
The threat
of arrests and violence appeared to reduce the numbers in Moscow compared with
last week. Forced out of the centre, a crowd of thousands chanting “Putin is a
thief” marched toward Moscow’s Komsomolskaya Square, a major rail artery
outside the security cordons, as police in body armour made hundreds of
arrests.
Behind them
sped dozens of armoured police vans used for mass arrests. “Moscow looks like a
fortress today,” said Maria Lazareva, a protester who found herself trapped
between two lines of riot police just off of Komsomolskaya Square. “They can
stop us when there are not enough of us but as more come it’s going to be
impossible to keep us penned in.”
Hundreds
chanted “freedom!” as they continued toward the Matrosskaya Tishina jail in
Moscow where Navalny is being held before a parole hearing this week that could
lead to him being sent to prison for years. Navalny was arrested earlier this
month after returning to Russia following a suspected FSB poisoning.
“He’s the
only one willing to fight back and always say the truth,” said another
protester, Dmitri. “Not everyone here agrees with him, but I think a lot [of
people] respect him.”
Police in
St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, took similar security precautions,
shutting down Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s main avenue, to prevent protesters
from gathering there. But thousands still gathered on sidestreets and faced off
with riot police, who beat truncheons against their metal riot shields in an
effort to scare off crowds calling for Navalny’s release. The crowds responded
by clapping.
For a
second week running, police at moments appeared to be close to losing control
of the situation. In Moscow, protesters ran out into the streets, blocking
trafficand multiple videos showed police using stun guns to shock protesters,
in one case until the victim lost consciousness. In St Petersburg, one police
officer was filmed pulling a pistol on protesters after being kicked to the
ground.
The
Kremlin’s goal on Sunday was to show that it was ready to take extraordinary
measures to prevent Navalny supporters from gathering in cities across the
country. In many places, police chased the opposition leader’s supporters out
of the city centre and into the outskirts. In Ekaterinburg, police made arrests
on the frozen Iset River, and in Vladivostok, police followed protesters on to
the frozen ice of the Amur Bay.
The Biden
administration again condemned the crackdown on protests, marking a significant
departure from the Trump White House. “The US condemns the persistent use of
harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian
authorities for a second week straight,” said the US secretary of state, Antony
Blinken. “We renew our call for Russia to release those detained for exercising
their human rights, including Alexei Navalny.”
EU foreign
policy chief Josep Borrell said he deplored the “widespread detentions and
disproportionate use of force” against protesters and journalists.
On Sunday,
police detained more than 5,100 people in cities nationwide, according to
OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests, surpassing the 4,000
detentions at the demonstrations across Russia on 23 January, leaving many
opposition supporters behind bars.
Police this
week arrested Navalny’s senior aides for allegedly violating coronavirus
restrictions during last week’s protests. The largely leaderless crowds in
Moscow on Sunday were directed via the Telegram messaging app, which as of late
Sunday afternoon had ushered them away from the jail back toward the city
centre.
The remote
directions were reminiscent of the protests in neighbouring Belarus, where
Telegram channels opposed to the government of Alexander Lukashenko would
direct protesters to sites around the city each week as the government clamped
down. The harsh tactics used by police, who were filmed using stun guns on
subdued protesters, kicking snow in the faces of demonstrators lying prone, and
beating female protesters with batons, also appeared to be a calculated
decision to wear down the demonstrators’ resolve.
To
galvanise support at home, in an online video viewed more than 100m times,
Navalny has accused Putin of being the ultimate owner of a sumptuous Black Sea
palace, something he has denied. On the eve of the protests, Arkady Rotenberg,
a businessman and Putin’s former judo sparring partner, said he owned the
property.
New
protests are expected on Tuesday if Navalny is sentenced to prison time. While
street demonstrations reversed a prison sentence against him in 2013, analysts
have said that the Kremlin is now less concerned with the potential opposition
backlash or likely international condemnation.
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