Police arrest over 1,000 in Russia

Police detained over 1,000 people across Russia yesterday and used force to break up rallies around the country as tens of thousands of protesters demanded the release of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, whose wife was among those detained. 

Navalny had called on his supporters to protest after being arrested last weekend as he returned to Russia from Germany for the first time since being poisoned with a nerve agent he says was applied to his underpants by state security agents in August.

The authorities had warned people to stay away from yesterday's protests, saying they risked catching Covid-19 as well as prosecution and possible jail time for attending an unauthorised event. But protesters defied the ban and bitter cold, and turned out in force.

In central Moscow, where Reuters reporters estimated at least 40,000 people had gathered in one of the biggest unauthorised rallies for years, police were seen roughly detaining people, bundling them into nearby vans.The authorities said just some 4,000 people had shown up.

Navalny's wife Yulia said on social media she had been detained at the rally. Some of Navalny's political allies were detained in the days before the protest; others on the day itself.

The OVD-Info protest monitor group said that at least 1,090 people had been detained across Russia. It reported arrests at rallies in nearly 70 towns and cities.

Navalny is in a Moscow prison pending the outcome of four legal matters he describes as trumped up. He accuses President Vladimir Putin of ordering his attempted murder. Putin has dismissed that, alleging Navalny is part of a US-backed dirty tricks campaign to discredit him.