Russia arrested key Alexei Navalny aides ahead of Wednesday’s protests against Vladimir Putin

Two of Alexei Navalny’s closest associates were arrested on Wednesdayhis lawyers said at the start of a day of mass protests in support of the jailed Kremlin critic as president Vladimir Poutine delivering his speech on the state of the Russian Federation.

Lyubov Sobol, one of the faces of the popular Navalny YouTube channel, and Kira yarmysh, your spokesperson, were arrested in Moscow.

Navalny, The main Russian opposition politician and a thorn alongside Putin over the past decade, gravely ill in prison after a three-week hunger strike. His team urged people across the vast country to take to the streets on Wednesday to demand lifesaving medical treatment.

The government has declared the protests planned today to be illegal. Previous protests in favor of Navalny were forcibly dispersed, with thousands of arrests.

Police arrested at least 10 opposition activists in various Russian regions ahead of protests, according to the monitoring group OVD-Info. Police raided the apartments of Navalny supporters in St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk and Yekaterinburg. A journalist’s apartment was also searched in St. Petersburg.

“As usual, they think that if they isolate the ‘leaders’, there will be no protest”, said Leonid Volkov, a close associate of Navalny. “Of course it’s wrong.”

Another Navalny aide, Ruslan Shaveddinov, tweeted: “Right now, all over Russia, they are arresting possible protesters. It is repression. It cannot be accepted. We must fight this darkness. “

Putin’s speech

Putin, who takes care never to pronounce Navalny’s name, spoke in his speech to both houses of parliament about his plans to boost economic growth, which has been affected by foreign sanctions, low oil prices and the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Russian president said on Wednesday that the government’s main task is to bring down Russians’ personal incomes.

“The main thing is to guarantee the growth of the real income of citizens”, Putin said in his annual State of the Nation address, announcing a series of measures to put more money in Russians’ pockets ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections.

Putin also added that he hoped to obtain herd immunity against covid-19 in Russia in the fall, and he praised his country’s “scientific progress” with the creation of three vaccines.

“The vaccine is of capital importance today (…) to allow collective immunity to develop in the fall” boreal, Putin said in his annual State of the Nation speech.

The Russian president also said he wanted “Keep all borders under control to stop the spread” virus.

Putin also addressed the deep crisis in Russia’s relations with the West Yes warned his foreign rivals that they “do not cross the red line” with Russia.

“I hope no one has the idea of ​​crossing a red line with Russia. We will decide for ourselves where (this line) goes ”, he stated, in a reference to his verbal crossovers with Westerners.

The president also denounced the Western silence in the face of what he defined as a “Coup attempt” in Belarus, where the leader Alexander Lukashenko assured that he had aborted a plan that attempted to assassinate him.

Since last week, The United States has tightened sanctions on Russia following accusations that Moscow hacked computers and interference in elections, and the Czech Republic accused Moscow of participating in explosions at a weapons depot in 2014. Both expelled Russian diplomats, as did Bulgaria and Poland. Russia has denied wrongdoing and responded with tit-for-tat deportations.

When Putin begins his speech at noon (09:00 GMT), it is expected that Protesters in the far eastern port of Vladivostok take to the streets at the first of an ongoing wave of protests across Russia in support of Navalny.

The 44-year-old politician, who survived a nerve agent poisoning last year that Russia denies doing, was sentenced in February to two and a half years for parole violation linked to a case of embezzlement which he said was politically motivated.

He went on a hunger strike on March 31 because what he said was the prison authorities’ refusal to provide him with adequate treatment for his severe leg and back pain. Authorities say he received normal medical treatment.

Navalny’s team said protests would take place in more than 100 cities and cities, including Moscow Square, near the Manezh Exhibition Hall, where Putin will deliver his speech.

(With information from Reuters)

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