Extraordinary Images From Across Russia as pro-Navalny Protests Rattle President Putin

Extraordinary images have emerged Saturday from across Russia as tens of thousands come out to protest the imprisonment of leading opposition figure, Alexei Navaly. Riot police detained over 2,500 and can be seen bashing and detaining children and the elderly. The geolocation map shows protests right across Russia’s time zones, and in some locations in temperatures as lows as -50 Celsius.

Reuters estimated the number of protesters in central Moscow at over 40,000 people. At least 900 were detained in Moscow alone - including, for a brief period, Navalny’s wife, Yulia. Many could be heard chanting “Putin is a thief.” The protests have been ongoing for some eight hours as of 20:00 GMT. Footage has also emerged of protesters pelting riot police with snowballs.

Navalny is back in Russia five months after surviving a poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok. During a hastily arranged hearing on Monday in what can best be described as a sham trial at the Moscow police station where he is being held, Navalny was ordered to remain in custody for 30 days.

Read here why a rattled President Putin chose to imprison Navalny and how it demonstrates his “disdain for any form of dissent, his reflex to reach for the most barbaric tactics to silence voices of opposition.”

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