Russian authorities detained hundreds of anti-corruption protesters and arrested the nation’s leading opposition figure Sunday, as the biggest demonstrations against the Kremlin since 2011 broke out in several cities around the nation.
Advertisement
Medvedev’s property was reported to include vineyards, yachts and mansions.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is making a court appearance Monday, a day after being detained at a major opposition rally the previous day. Dozens were reportedly arrested around the country. I wasn’t able to see what, if anything, these men had done before the police grabbed them. “Here and nothing formalized yet”. A crowd of mostly young people stood fast on an elevated flower bed where they displayed a cartoon with a duck and the words “Corruption is stealing the future”. But you can not arrest everyone who is against corruption.
Some cities have officially sanctioned Sunday’s protest.
Earlier on Friday, the Kremlin said in a statement that it would not allow any protest plan in the center of Moscow, calling it “an illegal provocation”.
A protester with trainers on his neck, which has become symbol of corruption, is detained in Moscow on Sunday, March 26, 2017.
He was charged with violating an administrative code regulating public gatherings and is facing a fine, community service, or administrative detention, TASS reports, citing police.
A warning over a loudspeaker urged people to “think of the consequences” and depart.
The protests appeared to be one of the largest coordinated outpourings of dissatisfaction in Russian Federation since the massive 2011-12 demonstrations that followed a fraud-tainted parliamentary election.
Local media reported that large protests also took place in other cities, including St Petersburg and Novosibirsk.
Opinion polls suggest Mr Navalny’s opposition has little chance of fielding a candidate capable of unseating Putin, who enjoys high ratings. Representatives of the Moscow authorities told Sputnik that Navalny had refused the offer. But under the Russian election law, he can not run because he has a criminal record – a suspended sentence for fraud.
Advertisement
In 2013, he was convicted of siphoning money off a lumber sale.
