Police on Wednesday rounded up more than 1,400 protesters as Russians in dozens of cities took part in rallies organized by allies of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny over his failing health in jail.
His spokeswoman was jailed for 10 days and another close ally detained — on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a state-of-the-nation speech warning the West not to cross Russia’s “red lines” and pointedly made no mention of the hunger-striking Navalny.
“This is one of the last gasps of a free Russia, as many are saying. We came out for Alexei ... against a war in Ukraine and the wild propaganda,” said Marina, a student at the Moscow protest.
Photo: AP
OVD-Info, a group that monitors protests and detentions, said that 1,496 people had been arrested, including 662 in St Petersburg and 95 in the Urals city of Ufa.
Protesters in central Moscow chanted: “Freedom to Navalny” and “Let the doctors in.”
Navalny’s wife, Yulia, joined the rally in the capital, where demonstrators chanted her name.
The opposition had hoped that the rallies would be the biggest in modern Russian history, and presented them as an attempt to save Navalny’s life by persuading the authorities to allow his own doctors to treat him.
However, the turnout looked smaller than during protests earlier this year before Navalny was jailed for two-and-a-half years for parole breaches related to charges of embezzlement, which he called politically motivated.
Police said that 6,000 people protested illegally in Moscow, while Navalny’s YouTube channel said that turnout in the capital was up to 10 times higher.
The 44-year-old, who last year survived a nerve agent attack that Russian authorities denied carrying out, is thin and weak after starving himself for three weeks, and his allies have said that he risks kidney failure or cardiac arrest.
The US has warned Russia that it would face “consequences” if he dies.
Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova said that four doctors from outside the federal prison agency had visited Navalny on Tuesday and found no serious health problems.
Russia has said that he has been treated as any other prisoner.
The confrontation over Navalny’s fate is a flashpoint in Moscow’s dire relations with the West, already aggravated by economic sanctions, diplomatic expulsions and a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.
UN human rights experts have urged Moscow to let Navalny be medically evaluated abroad.
They said that they believed his life was in danger, as he was being held in “conditions that could amount to torture.”
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