MOSCOW -- Most of the hundreds detained at Monday’s anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow were released overnight, while opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 30 days for his role in organising the unsanctioned rally.
Of the more than 800 people detained in Moscow, at least 32 were still being held at 4am local time, according to OVD-Info, a group that provides legal aid. Navalny, a 41-year-old lawyer whose slick use of social media has helped mobilise a new generation to protest against Russian corruption, quipped on Twitter that his sentence meant he would miss the July 15 Depeche Mode concert. Opposition leaders Ilya Yashin and Vyacheslav Maltsev were due in court Tuesday for sentencing, according to their Twitter accounts.
Over 1,000 were detained in cities around the country at Monday’s protests against official corruption, with the largest rallies reported in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The turnout, which like the last major Navalny-backed demonstrations in March was driven in part by people in their teens and twenties, suggested government interference and police pressure isn’t enough to discourage attendance.
Navalny’s sentence was reasonable because his call for protests in the centre of the capital were “counterproductive”, Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Kremlin human rights council, said on Ekho Moskvy radio Tuesday.
The number of arrests brought about a rare criticism of the Kremlin from President Donald Trump’s administration, which called on Russia to “immediately release all peaceful protesters”, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news briefing Monday. Despite Mr Trump’s announced intention to improve relations when he took office, several US senators said they’d struck a bipartisan deal to expand sanctions against Russia that will be debated this week.
Navalny called for the unsanctioned protests in Moscow after complaining that the city government had blocked him from organising a demonstration in a less-central location. This marks the second jail term this year for Navalny, who says he will run in Russia’s March 2018 election against President Vladimir Putin.