Anti-Putin Protests Lead to Over 4,000 Arrests Across Russia

(Bloomberg) -- More than 4,000 people were arrested across Russia, including the wife of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny, as demonstrators engaged in anti-Putin protests for a second straight week.

A heavy police presence and the halting of public transportation in Russia’s largest cities hindered efforts to track protest turnout, but figures for both the number of people arrested and cities that saw detentions surpassed last weekend’s totals, according to monitoring website OVD-Info.

Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, defied threats of arrest to return from Germany in mid-January after a nerve-agent attack that he said was an attempt by Putin to kill him. He has has vowed to keep up the pressure on the authorities even from behind bars. A Russian court is preparing to hand him a possible 3 1/2 year prison term.

Navalny and his allies were hoping to repeat the success seen on Jan. 23, when they brought out tens of thousands of supporters in more than 150 cities around the country despite police bans. By 7 p.m. Moscow time on Sunday, more than 4,000 people had been detained in over 80 Russian cities, according to OVD-Info data.

The authorities had warned against participation in the protests, and most of the Navalny aides who weren’t already in prison were picked up this week and are now facing criminal charges. Still, the Kremlin was worried by the scale of the demonstrations and looking for ways to cool public discontent that has been building up amid slumping incomes and the coronavirus downturn, three people close to the government said.

Foot traffic around the Kremlin was severely curtailed today by barricades manned by police, and seven central Moscow metro stations were closed, according to a post on the Moscow Department of Transportation’s Telegram channel. The RIA news service reported that riot police broke up a crowd of about 100 protesters, making some detentions, near Moscow’s Prospekt Sakharova, a popular rallying point for political protests named for a Soviet-era dissident. Interfax reported that around 2,000 people participated in unsanctioned protests in Moscow, citing Interior Ministry figures. Yulia Navalnaya was detained in suburban Moscow, according to her lawyer Svetlana Davydova.

Putin, 68, has been in power for more than two decades, the longest rule since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. In July, he pushed through constitutional changes that would allow him to stay as president until 2036. His support last year dropped to a record low amid the Covid-19 lockdown, but recovered a bit by November, according to the Levada Center.

While he’s survived several previous waves of anti-Kremlin protests, steadily tightening restrictions on public demonstrations, the opposition is digging in for a long-term struggle ahead of 2024, when Putin must decide whether to seek a fifth mandate. Backers of Navalny say he’s turning into a potent symbol of resistance in prison.

Navalny, 44, was detained on Jan. 17 upon returning home from Germany, where he recovered from a chemical poisoning during a campaign trip to Siberia in August. His imprisonment drew Western calls for his immediate release, including an appeal this week in a phone call from U.S. President Joe Biden.

After years of largely ignoring the anti-graft activist in public, the Kremlin has begun trying to refute his allegations. On Jan. 25, Putin denounced the protests as “dangerous” and dismissed claims in a video released by Navalny that he owns a giant $1.3 billion Black Sea palace. The almost two-hour clip now has more than 100 million views. A pro-Kremlin online outlet released a video Friday from the palace, showing it’s still under construction, but Navalny’s allies said it was under renovation after mold problems required a complete overhaul.

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On Friday, a Moscow court ordered Navalny’s brother Oleg and two allies, Lyubov Sobol and Anastasia Vasilyeva, to be placed under house arrest on suspicion of violating anti-Covid 19 restrictions. They have also opened a criminal case against one of the opposition leader’s top aides, Leonid Volkov, alleging he encouraged minors to participate in the unsanctioned protests. The opposition leader himself is accused of violating probation under a suspended sentence and faces new potential fraud charges that could carry an additional 10-year punishment.

The challenge posed by Navalny has fueled tensions within the political elite. While one person close to the Kremlin said the authorities must act to reduce social tensions, another official said there is pressure for a hard line that will only worsen dissatisfaction and bolster Navalny’s appeal.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.