MOSCOW: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained on Monday immediately following his release from prison after serving a 30-day sentence for an unauthorised protest. “Alexei Navalny was detained outside the detention centre,” his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, wrote on Twitter, adding that the politician was taken to a central Moscow police station. Yarmysh said President Vladimir Putin’s top critic was accused of violating a different protest law and faces up to 20 days in prison. He was due to appear in court later on Monday, she added.
Navalny was in jail for a month for a protest he organised in January, violating laws which forbid any public event without authorisation.
The 42-year-old has accused the authorities of sending him to prison to keep him from holding another protest on September 9 against the government’s retirement age hike plan that coincided with local elections.
Thousands of Russians across the country turned out despite his arrest and more than 1,000 people were arrested, according to the independent monitor OVD-info.
Navalny has criticised the pension reform that has led to a rare outburst of public anger in Putin’s Russia.
Writing on Twitter, his associate Lyubov Sobol said he Navalny was detained again “because the authorities are now weaker than ever.”
“The overwhelming majority of people are against raising the retirement age and (ruling) United Russia (party) was defeated in gubernatorial elections in key regions,” she wrote.
“They are scared, panicking and taking revenge.”
Election blows: The Kremlin-backed plan to raise the state pension has seen Putin’s approval ratings take a major hit. About 3,000 people demonstrated in Moscow on Saturday against the reform in a protest organised by the Communist Party and approved by local authorities.
Public anger over the pension age hike and falling living standards as a result of tough Western sanctions has also led to rare election reverses for the Kremlin. — AFP
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