Russian Police Confront Protesters Exhorted by U.S.

Date: 23 January 2021 - 21:34

News ID: ۸۶۸۲۲

MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- Police detained over 1,000 people across Russia on Saturday after a group of people held illegal protests to demand the release of Western-backed blogger Alexei Navalny.
Navalny had called for protest after being arrested last weekend as he returned to Russia from Germany for the first time since being allegedly poisoned with a nerve agent.
The authorities had warned people to stay away from Saturday’s protests, saying they risked catching COVID-19 as well as prosecution and possible jail time for attending an unauthorized event.
Navalny, a 44-year-old lawyer, is in a Moscow prison pending the outcome of four legal matters.
On Friday, Moscow warned the U.S. embassy against encouraging unauthorized rallies in support of Navalny, saying the move will be regarded as "gross interference” in the country’s internal affairs.
The Russian Foreign Ministry raised the alarm on its Telegram channel after the American embassy called on U.S. nationals to avoid unsanctioned demonstrations in Navalny’s support due to likely substantial police presence.
The U.S. diplomatic mission also listed in detail the place and timing of the demonstrations in various cities across the country.
"All that coincides with Washington’s provocative doctrinal guidelines to encourage ‘protests in the countries with unwanted governments’, any attempts of this ‘coverage’ of unauthorized rallies will be regarded as gross interference in our country’s domestic affairs and will lead to a corresponding response,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry underlined that the information, posted on the U.S. embassy’s site, on the time and venues for the unsanctioned rallies goes beyond concern for U.S. nationals in Russia.
Russian police detained Navalny on arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport from Germany last weekend, five months after he was transferred to a hospital in Berlin to be treated for what the West alleged had been a nerve agent attack by Moscow.
Russia denied the allegation, describing it as a provocation of Western intelligence services aimed at justifying more sanctions against Russia.
Germany has rejected a request by Russian prosecutors to provide Navalny’s medical records for a comparative study of his condition.
Navalny, who was arrested for violating the terms of a suspended sentence he initially received in 2014, is set to remain behind bars until mid-February, awaiting trial.