Hundreds of detainees in Russia during party protests …

More than 300 people have been arrested in Russia during events organized by supporters of opposition leader Alexey Navalny to demand his release amid the coronavirus pandemic.

From Moscow to Vladivostok in far eastern Russia, the anti-corruption activist team has called for demonstrations against the government in 65 cities.

The first protests took place in the Far East and Siberia, where several thousand people took to the streets of Vladivostok, Kabarovsk, Novosibirsk and Chita, in the face of a large deployment of riot police. Shortly after, in Moscow, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the central Pushkin Square, the AFP news agency reported.

“Russia will be free”said those present, who wanted to walk to the Kremlin. According to the police, there was 4 thousand demonstrators gathered in Moscow. Opponents did not provide figures.

Before the start of the demonstration in the capital, riot police, deployed in large numbers, had already arrested several dozen people and urged the demonstrators to “leave the illegal concentration“.

Snowballs thrown by some anti-police protesters in Moscow have been struck. Other citizens protested silently, with banners saying “I am not afraid” or “No to dictatorship”.

In Yakutsk, south of the Arctic Circle, a hundred people braved the extreme cold of -50 degrees to demonstrate.

Some 330 people were detained in some 20 Russian cities until early afternoon, said the NGO OVD-Info, which specializes in reporting on arrests in connection with protests.

The arrests were particularly violent in Vladivostok, Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, where riot police hit protesters with batons.

Moscow police warned they would suppress any unauthorized demonstration they consider a “threat to public order”. The mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, denounced the “unacceptable” demonstrations in the midst of the pandemic.

Thousands of peaceful protesters have been arrested in previous mass protests in Moscow in the summer of 2019.

As at the time, the Russian police arrested this week, before the mobilizations, the main allies of Navalny, two of whom were sentenced Friday to short prison terms.

Navalny, 44, will remain in detention at least until February 15 and has several pending legal proceedings. He was arrested on Sunday, upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering after showing a photo of poisoning.

He claims that the Russian secret service poisoned him with a nerve agent on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who flatly rejected the charge. Three European laboratories also concluded that it was poisoning. Moscow categorically denies it and denounces a plot.

Even knowing he risked going to jail, Navalny decided to return to Russia with his wife on Sunday. Western powers demanded his release, but the Kremlin rejects the pressure, which it sees as interference in internal affairs.