More than 260 people detained during Putin’s birthday protests in Russia
At least 262 people were detained during protests in support of Alexei Navalny in 27 cities across Russia, according to OVD-Info.
As of 8:00 p.m., 66 people had been detained in Petersburg, 54 people in Yaroslavl, and 20 in Lipetsk. Detentions also occurred in Kaliningrad, Krasnodar, Perm, Pskov, Saransk, Selyatin, Sochi, Stavropol, Tver, Tyumen, and Yakutsk.
In Krasnodar, one of the protesters was arrested for three days. In Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Nizhny Tagil, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saratov, Tula, Tyumen and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the protesters were first detained and then released.
Two people were detained at the protest in Moscow, Dozhd TV channel reports. The head of Navalny’s Moscow headquarters, Nikolai Lyaskin, called the protest the largest uncoordinated procession along Tverskaya Street that has taken place without detentions.
Citing representatives of the movement Assistance to Detainees, Fontanka news website reported that more than one hundred people had been detained in St. Petersburg. During this time, the police severely detained the participants.
One activist from the movement Assistance to Detainees, Marina Bukina, spoke of how an employee from the National Guard of Russia struck her on the head with a baton. "They say the cut is about seven centimeters," she said in a conversation with Novaya Gazeta.
In early October, Navalny announced the holding of an all-Russian protest on the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In Moscow, St. Petersburg and a number of other cities, the protests were not coordinated.
Navalny was arrested on October 2 for 20 days over calls to participate in uncoordinated protests.