RUSSIAN opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been arrested in Moscow as protest demonstrations called by him took place across the country.

Mr Navalny called on supporters to continue the demonstrations despite his arrest overnight.

He said on Twitter “they have detained me. This doesn’t mean anything ... you didn’t come out for me, but for your future.”

Protests ranging from a few dozen to several hundred people were reported throughout the country.

Mr Navalny called for a boycott of the March 18 presidential election in which President Vladimir Putin is seeking a fourth term.

Police earlier raided Mr Navalny’s Moscow office.

A video stream on Sunday morning from the opposition leader’s headquarters showed police entering the office. One broadcaster on the stream said police apparently were using a grinder to try to get access to the broadcast studio.

The anchors said police said they had come because of a bomb threat. One anchor, Dmitri Nizovtsev, was detained by police during the raid, according to video broadcast by the headquarters.

Mr Navalny’s Moscow co-ordinator, Nikolai Lyaskin, also was detained on Sunday, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Mr Navalny, who has been blocked from running in Russia’s March 18 presidential election, called for nationwide protests on Sunday.

Aside from Moscow and St Petersburg, sizeable gatherings were also reported on Sunday in the Far East and Siberia, including one in remote Yakutsk where the temperature reportedly was minus -45C.

Navalny was released from the police under the obligation to attend


Oppositionist Aleksei Navalny was released from the police without drawing up a protocol, but he was pledged to attend. Navalny detained on Tverskaya during a protest action

https://s0.rbk.ru/v6_top_pics/resize...1717538939.jpg

The police released the oppositionist Alexei Navalny from the police department without drawing up a protocol. This was reported to Interfax by his lawyer Olga Mikhailova.

"With Alexei they took a commitment to appear, he was released home," - said Mikhailova. According to the lawyer, the protocol on administrative violation in relation to the policy may be drawn up later .In a conversation with RBC, she specified that the obligation does not specify a specific date. "This will be notified later," she said.

Later, Navalny himself told in his Twitter that he was "released before the trial." "It was not given to the ATS to get out - they were taken to Avtozavodskaya. Thank you very much to everyone who supported and stood at the department, "the oppositionist said.

Read more at RBC:

https://www.rbc.ru/politics/28/01/20...79471944ab931a

When you aren't as confident as you appear in your annual minute-planified TV show, you prevent opposent to talk...

Originally Posted by Bluedeck

When you aren't as confident as you appear in your annual minute-planified TV show, you prevent opposent to talk...

This is a struggle for power and everyone is trying to use their methods of influence, and is not that so in other countries?