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Eastern Europe
May 11, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
Hundreds arrested during Russian “He’s not my tsar” protests
bne IntelliNews
Anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny was arrested by riot police only min- utes after arriving at an unsanctioned protest rally on Pushkin Square in central Moscow on May 5.
Up to 2,000 people were briefly arrested during a series of protests across Russia on May 5 just a few days before President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming inauguration. The demonstrators' slogan was “He’s not my tsar.”
The biggest, and what turned out to be the most violent protest, was organised for the heart of Moscow on Pushkin Square by anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny.
The city government had given Navalny permission to hold a protest on May 7 on Sakharov Prospect in central Moscow, but Navalny defied the authorities by holding the protest two days early and in the Russian capital's most central square in a move clearly designed to provoke the government.
Unusually, the authorities sent in riot police to break up the protest leading to a wave of pictures and video on social media of the police’s brutal treatment of the crowds. Navalny was arrested within miniutes of arriving at the demonstration, but not before he managed to make a short speech. Several children of about 12 years-old were also arrested according to reports on social media.
According to one more detailed report, the police detained over 1,000 people at nationwide protests,
Opposition leader Navalny was carried from the protest by police. Up to 2,000 people were briefly arrested during a series of protests across Russia on May 5.
including 574 in Moscow, 164 in Chelyabinsk, 75 in Yakutsk, 63 in Tolyatti, 53 in St Petersburg and 49 in Krasnodar.
In another report, by OVD-Info, a rights organisation that monitors detentions, it was suggested that police detaining 1,597 people across Russia, nearly half of them in Moscow.
A police spokesman said around 1,500 people had protested in Moscow, of whom around 300 had been detained, Interfax news agency reported. Reuters reporters estimated that the crowd numbered several thousand.
Navalny called for demonstrations in more than 90 towns and cities across Russia against what he says is Putin’s autocratic, tsar-like rule.
Videos of police using batons to beat protesters before dragging them away were widespread. The video below shows a typical scene, reportedly from the protests in St Petersburg.
Riot police arrest a protester during an unsanctioned rally in St Petersburg
In Moscow, Navalny appeared in front of the crowd with a megaphone lung under his arm. “They
said that this city belongs to Putin. Is that right?” Navalny asked his supporters. “Do you need a tsar?” he asked, eliciting a collective roar of “No!”
Riot police quickly moved in and clearly had orders to arrest Navalny who was carried from the