New protests in Russia: protesters express solidarity with Alexei Navalny and all political prisoners in the country

Supporters of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader imprisoned by the government of Vladimir Putin, lead this Sunday Candlelit rallies at residential construction sites across Russia, despite warnings they could be stopped.

Allies have declared a moratorium on street rallies until spring, after police have arrested thousands of people in recent weeks in protests against the arrest and imprisonment of the opposition leader.

However, they want the Russians to show solidarity with Navalny by meeting outside their homes for 15 minutes on Valentine’s Day, turn on flashlights on their cell phones and arrange heart-shaped candles.

“(President Vladimir) Putin is fear. Navalny is love. This is why we will win “written on twitter Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny’s close allies, calling people to meet.

Navalny was arrested last month on his return from Germany, where he was treated after being poisoned in Siberia, with what many Western countries say is a nerve agent. Activist blames Putin for poisoning and part of international community is considering new sanctions against Russia. The Kremlin denies any involvement and questions that the opponent has been poisoned.

Volkov, who resides in Lithuania, is one of Navalny’s many allies who are now overseas or under house arrest in Russia.

He urged people to flood social media with photos of Sunday’s meetings -a new adventure for the opposition that resembles the political actions of neighboring Belarus- using the hashtag #loveisstrongerthanfear (“Love is stronger than fear”) in Russian.

For their part, hundreds of women demonstrated in Moscow and other Russian cities on Valentine’s Day, in support of Navalny and those arrested in recent protests.

Despite the low temperatures, which reach -13 °, about 300 women formed a “chain of solidarity” on Arbat Street in central Moscow, also under the motto “Love is stronger than fear”.

“We want to show that we are in favor of love and against violence. Very brave and kind girls came “, declared to the agency AFP Daria Obraztsova, a 22 year old student who said she wanted “freedom and justice to reign” [su] Country”.

In Saint Petersburg (north-west), the initiative brought together around a hundred people. Some wore flowers or paper hearts with the names of women symbolizing opposition to the Kremlin.

In images posted to social media, they appeared chanting slogans such as “Freedom for political prisoners”.

“Only love can conquer evil,” he said Valeria stepanova, 25 years.

According to the NGO OVD-Info, which specializes in monitoring demonstrations, during a demonstration of this type organized in Kazan (south-west), the authorities arrested nine people.

These protests were inspired by similar protests held in neighboring Belarus against President Alexander Lukashenko.

On February 2, Russian courts sentenced Navalny to two and a half years in prison, executing a 2014 suspended sentence that was deemed arbitrary by the European Court of Human Rights. The judge of the case, Natalya Repnikova, ruled that the opposition leader, who returned to Russia in January after recovering from the poisoning, violated probation by failing to appear before the relevant authority last year.

Although the sentence is three and a half years, it was reduced from the ten months that the opponent spent under house arrest.

In 2014, Navalny and his brother Oleg were convicted in a business fraud and money laundering case. They were charged with the theft of 26.7 million rubles (nearly $ 500,000) from the Yves Rocher Vostok perfume store, among other alleged crimes.

Dozens of countries and international organizations, including the United States and the European Union, have called on Russia to release Navalny and condemned the police crackdown during protests that have erupted since the opposition leader’s arrest .

With information from Reuters and AFP

Read on:

Yulia Navalnaya: wife of an imprisoned leader or new face of the Russian opposition?