Some 65 cities are staging protests today, and most appear to be gathering several hundred people.
Turnout in Moscow later today will be crucial for Navalny’s movement.
This is Barnaul (videos via Telegram)
Krasnoyarsk, where riot police are preparing to disperse the crowd after loudspeaker warnings.
Cities throughout Russia have in recent days seen detentions of activists, political lectures in schools & workplaces, & written warnings about the repercussions of attending protests
Ulan-Ude in east Siberia.
The crowds aren’t huge but it’s telling that places like these very rarely see any public dissent whatsoever, let alone street protests punishable by fines & possible jail-time
The Navalny rally in Yakutsk, Siberia, where it’s -50 centigrade
Tomsk, the city where Navalny was poisoned.
The Putin critic returned to Russia on January 17 after five months recovering from the poisoning in Germany. He was arrested at the border.
“Break the system!” chants the crowd in Irkutsk, Siberia.
Some parts of Russia’s major cities look like Minsk, which became almost a militarised fortress during the peak of protests again Lukashenko.
@meduzaproject shares this photo of what look like armored personnel carriers traveling into Moscow
Another video from Irkutsk.
“We will not leave!” they chant.
Will be tough for police to disperse this crowd without very ugly scenes.
“We are in power here!” chants the crowd in Omsk, Siberia.
This is the city where Navalny’s plane made an emergency landing on August 20, and from which he was flown for treatment to Germany after Russian authorities stalled for two days.
Riot police in some cities have blocked entrances to the subway, apparently to limit access to protest sites.
There’s solidarity among Russia’s protesters with #Belarus, which has seen protests every weekend since August, & a brutal police crackdown.
People in Irkutsk are chanting in the Belarusian language: “Long live Belarus!”
Serious clashes in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, where protesters are fighting off riot police trying to arrest them.
Protests are happening even in remote Khakassia, near Mongolia, where people are walking through the streets chanting “Putin’s a thief!”
The last time Russia saw protests of this geographic scale was March 2017, incited by another corruption investigation by Navalny
It’s the same anti-Putin chant in Novokuznetsk, also in Siberia.
Many protesters are covering up their faces in an effort to prevent authorities from identifying and punishing them for joining illegal rallies.
For more on the sweeping crackdown ahead of today’s protests and the stakes for Russia’s opposition movement: rferl.org/a/protests-rus…
Brave people in Kemerovo holding a Putin sign reading:
“I have a palace worth $1 bln. My citizens have no right to freedom.”
(Actually Navalny claims the palace is worth $1.36 billion)
Amazing. This is the center of the cosy university town of Tomsk, where a long line of people is marching & chanting “Putin’s a thief!”
Really reminiscent of scenes in Belarus this summer - though Russia’s scale is incomparable
Dozens of activists, lawyers, journalists & even members of pro-Navalny social media groups were visited by police across Russia in recent days for so-called “prophylactic conversations” about the illegality of protest. Despite that, turnout is impressive
Massive crowds in central Moscow right now, chanting “All for one and one for all!”
Serious clashes under way in Moscow but the protesters have come out in huge numbers.
Possibly the biggest unsanctioned protest in Russia’s history.
Moscow protesters are dismantling police cordons (via Baza)
Videos like this were used in court during a series of trials of Moscow protesters in 2019. Today’s protest seems far bigger - and that’s only in Moscow.
Arrests of protesters have begun in central Moscow, more than an hour before the Navalny rally officially begins.
Authorities have cordoned off parts of the city center including entrances to Red Square, and parked multiple riot vans to fill up with detained activists.
237 arrests already reported in more than 30 Russian cities - and the Moscow and St Petersburg protests haven’t even begun
More arrests in central Moscow.
Police are picking out activists at random and apparently trying to nip this protest in the bud before it even formally begins one hour from now.
Russia’s FSB is storming the Siberian settlement of the Church of the Last Testament and has arrested its leader Vissarion, who says he’s a reincarnation of Jesus Christ and has some 4,000 avowed followers. Vissarion and his aides were taken away in helicopters, Mash reports.
Meduza says the homes of the cult members are being raided by armed men in camouflage with no reasons for the raid given. The Last Testament Church was founded in 1991 by ex-traffic cop Sergei Torop, who says he was reborn as the returned Jesus Christ meduza.io/news/2020/09/2…
Here's a nice Guardian photo-essay on the Vissarion cult, one of hundreds of religious cults that emerged in Russia when the Soviet Union - and the set of convictions it enshrined - collapsed in 1991 theguardian.com/artanddesign/g…
Navalny was out gathering evidence on several corrupt officials in Siberia when he was poisoned. Results from regional elections yesterday show that all of them lost their mandates to Navalny-backed candidates.
Navalny’s team claims that one of the men, Evgeny Yakovenko, benefitted from an overnight ballot-stuffing operation and is claiming victory. His challenger Vyacheslav Yakumenko has gathered his supporters in a bid to defend the real result.