Among 1,300 people who were allegedly arrested in multiple cities on Saturday was Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who was detained near one of the demonstrators in Moscow.
Not less than 40,000 people joined a rally in central Moscow, Reuters news agency estimated. Observers explained this was the biggest protest in the capital since the demonstrations of 2019. Though Russia's interior ministry put the number of protesters at 4,000.
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Navalny, a 44-year-old activist and one of Putin’s most notable critics, spent months living in Germany after being poisoned with a Soviet government-produced nerve agent while traveling over the summer. Russian intelligence operatives are blamed for planning the attack. After reacquiring consciousness, Navalny vowed to return to Russia — although, when he did, he was instantly arrested, sparking outrage among dissidents.
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In the city's Pushkin square, some protesters chanted "Freedom to Navalny" and "Putin go away!" One woman said that she had decided to join the demonstration because "Russia has been turned into a prison camp".
Saturday’s demonstrators, who braved sub-zero temperatures in some Siberian cities, demanded that Navalny and other political captives be freed. In Moscow, demonstrators reportedly chorused, “Putin is a thief! Freedom to Navalny!” Video sourced from social media dispensed large throngs of people.
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Police officers in Moscow donned riot equipment and were seen wielding their batons and arresting people near Pushkin Square even before the start of the protest. Vasily Zimin, a 47-year-old Moscow-based lawyer, told the New York Times that he arrived to protest because of the corruption he witnessed in the government.
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“The cup is full,” he said. “How can you say, ‘I can’t take anymore of this’ while sitting on your couch?”
The United States became roped into Saturday’s protests after it posted an advisory regarding the protests and included the locations and times for demonstrations in a dozen cities, warning U.S. citizens to steer clear from those cities. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs bashed the move in a Friday statement.
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“All that coincides with Washington’s provocative doctrinal guidelines to encourage ‘protests in the countries with unwanted governments,’” the Foreign Ministry said. “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.”
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Officials within the Biden administration have demanded Navalny’s immediate freedom, and the matter could have an impact on how U.S. foreign policy toward Russia progresses in the early days of the administration.
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