RIGA: The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have criticised Russia’s harsh crackdown on protesters demonstrating against the imprisonment of leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
“We strongly condemn the detention of peaceful protesters in Russia. They must be released immediately,” the foreign ministers of the three EU and Nato countries bordering Russia wrote on Twitter.
In the joint statement, Urmas Reinsalu of Estonia, Edgars Rinkevics of Latvia and Gabrielius Landsbergis of Lithuania also called for the rest of the EU to take a tough line on Moscow.
“All of us in the EU must be decisive in imposing restrictive measures against Russian officials responsible for arrests,” it said.
Late Saturday the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it launched criminal inquiries in Moscow over the use of violence against law enforcement, hooliganism and property damage.
“Investigators are continuing to study and analyse a large amount of photo and video materials,” the Committee said.
In a separate statement, investigators said Sunday a 36-year-old man hit two policemen at the Saint Petersburg protest and was detained.
But Saint Petersburg prosecutors also said they were probing violations “on the part of law enforcement” and the use of force against a woman.
The statement was released after local media published a video showing a middle-aged woman falling to the ground after being kicked by riot police.
In the video, a woman — identified as Margarita Yudina — is seen asking three policemen in full riot gear why they are detaining a young protester. One of the policemen then kicks her in the stomach.
Saint Petersburg’s Dzhanelidze hospital said Yudina was hospitalised with a head injury.
“She is in a serious condition,” a hospital representative said on Sunday. “She’s in intensive care.”
Moscow authorities for their part insisted that no one remained hospitalised in the capital following the rallies.
Officials said in a statement on Sunday that 29 people were taken to hospitals and received medical assistance after the protests.
“No one required further hospital treatment,” the statement said.
The head of the Kremlin’s human rights council, Valery Fadeyev, said most of those detained in Moscow had been released.
He also defended the detentions, saying the protests were illegal and took place during a coronavirus pandemic. “I see no violations whatsoever,” he said. “These events are illegal.” — AFP
He also accused TikTok, a Chinese video-sharing app beloved by teens, of encouraging minors to participate in Saturday’s protests. “This calls for an investigation,” he said. Moscow also accused US diplomats of publishing protest routes in advance of the demonstrations and of promoting a “march on the Kremlin” and said the representatives of the US embassy would be summoned by the foreign ministry.
A US mission spokeswoman said US embassies and consulates around the world routinely issue safety messages to US citizens.
“This is a common, routine practice of many countries’ diplomatic missions,” she said.
The OVD Info monitor said police seized at least 3,435 demonstrators across dozens of cities, with 1,360 people detained in Moscow and 523 in the second city Saint Petersburg.
Saturday’s protests took on an unprecedented geographic scale, spanning more than 100 cities across the country. Around 20,000 people protested in Moscow and more than 10,000 in Saint Petersburg, according to estimates. — AFP
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