[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] On the 23rd (local time), protests demanding the release of opposition activist Alexei Navalny took place across Russia. Navalny was treated for poisoning in Germany and was immediately detained upon returning to Russia on the 17th.
Russian authorities banned all regional gatherings citing the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and warned participants would be punished, but Navalny supporters went ahead with the protests. Interfax news agency and the anti-government newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that unauthorized protests supporting Navalny were held in more than 60 cities nationwide, including the capital Moscow, the second-largest city Saint Petersburg, and major cities in Siberia and the Far East.
In Moscow, Navalny supporters began gathering at Pushkin Square before the scheduled protest time of 2 p.m., filling the square with demonstrators. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (police) stated there were about 4,000 participants, but some media outlets such as Novaya Gazeta estimated at least 15,000 people.
The police repeatedly warned via loudspeakers that gatherings should not be held due to the risk of COVID-19 transmission, but the protesters did not back down. With no signs of dispersal, police and internal troops began forcibly removing protesters from the square, swinging batons and arresting those who resisted. The local NGO 'OVD-Info' claimed that over 600 protesters were detained in Moscow alone that day. Navalny’s wife, Yulia, was also arrested at the protest site but was later released.
In Saint Petersburg’s Senat Square, a protest involving about 5,000 people took place, with some participants reportedly arrested.
Navalny’s support groups had announced protests across Russia’s 11 time zones starting from the afternoon of the 23rd local time. Accordingly, protests began first in the Far East, where the time zone is earliest.
In Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, about 3,000 people marched in the streets, with some arrests made. In Yakutsk, where temperatures dropped to minus 50 degrees Celsius, about 300 people protested in the city square, and police arrested some protesters. Protests continued in Siberian cities such as Ulan-Ude and Novosibirsk, as well as in northern Murmansk and southern Samara.
'OVD-Info' reported that more than 2,000 people were arrested across Russia that day. The protests were considered the largest nationwide since the 2018 demonstrations against pension reform. Navalny’s side announced plans to hold protests again on the weekend of the 30th and 31st.
The Khimki court near Moscow authorized a 30-day detention for Navalny on the 18th, after which he was transferred to a detention center in central Moscow. The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service explained that Navalny was on the wanted list for failing to comply with probation obligations related to a 2014 fraud conviction. The service has filed a lawsuit with the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow to revoke Navalny’s probation and convert it into a prison sentence. The trial is scheduled for the 29th.
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