Group says Russian police arrest 109 Navalny supporters

Russian police have arrested greater than 100 individuals who had taken to the streets to mark the forty seventh birthday of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most outstanding opposition chief, a protest monitoring group says.

OVD-Data mentioned in a press release that 109 folks had been detained in 23 cities as of 10.42pm in Moscow.

Authorities have clamped down closely on indicators of dissent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and in most cities solely a handful of individuals had been held.

Navalny is serving mixed sentences of 11 and a half years for fraud and contempt of court docket on costs that he mentioned had been trumped as much as silence him.

Footage from Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia’s two largest cities, confirmed police arresting particular person demonstrators.

One man could possibly be seen briefly holding up an indication earlier than Moscow police ushered him away, bent over, as he groaned in ache.

One other man, who held up an indication in English that learn “Free Navalny,” was additionally arrested in Moscow.

In St Petersburg, a girl accompanied by a toddler instructed reporters that “I am towards the battle, that is why they detained me with my underage child”.

Navalny, who rose to prominence by lampooning President Vladimir Putin’s elite and alleging huge corruption, mentioned in April that an “absurd” terrorism case had been opened towards him that might lead to him being sentenced to an extra 30 years in jail.

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