NAVALNY

Top Putin Critic ‘Detained’ Before Anti-Kremlin Protests

Opposition leader moved protests closer to Kremlin, authorities threaten “all necessary measures” to shut him down.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was reportedly detained at his Moscow home Monday before planned nationwide protests against the Kremlin. “Alexei has been arrested in the entrance to our block of flats,” the opposition leader’s wife, Yuliya Navalny, wrote on Twitter, before defiantly noting: “Our plans haven’t changed.” Navalny had called for a series of Monday anti-corruption protests across Russia, including one in Vladivostok where at least 10 people were reportedly detained. According to the BBC, fellow Putin critic Daniil Ken was arrested Monday as he left his home in St. Petersburg, and urged fellow opposition members to go out and protest: “Go for me, please!” he tweeted. On Sunday night, Navalny moved the location of his Moscow protest to be closer to the Kremlin after authorities pressured companies against supplying any audio or video equipment for the protests. As a result, Reuters reported, the General Prosecutor's Office “warned that a protest there would be illegal and police would be forced to take ‘all necessary measures’ to prevent disorder.”