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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.
Hundreds arrested during Russian “He’s not my tsar” protests
the police detained over 1,000 people at nationwide protests, including 574 in Moscow, 164 in Chelyabinsk, 75 in Yakutsk, 63 in Tolyatti, 53 in St Peters- burg and 49 in Krasnodar.
In another report, by OVD-Info, a rights organisation that monitors detentions, it was suggested that police detained 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 num- bered 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.
In Moscow, Navalny appeared in front of the crowd with a megaphone hung 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 square. Then more police arrived and cleared the square
of protesters.
Demonstrations have become a regular occurrence in Russia over the last year, since Navalny went on a regional tour
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Anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny was arrested by riot police only minutes 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 Presi- dent Vladimir Putin’s 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
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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 minutes of arriving at the demonstra- tion, but not before he managed to make
“Authorities sent in riot police to break up the protest”
a short speech. Several children of about 12 years-old were also arrested accord- ing to reports on social media.
According to one more detailed report,
starting last summer ahead of the March presidential election, but the authorities have been pulling their punches allowing most to proceed unmolested, even if they were not officially sanctioned. However,