Supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny yesterday rallied across Russia, heeding his call to push authorities to let him enter a presidential election.
The wave of demonstrations on the 65th birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin comes as Navalny is serving a 20-day jail term for calling for an unsanctioned protest.
Navalny’s headquarters said that protests were set to be held in nearly 80 Russian cities.
Small gatherings were held in several cities in Russia’s far east and Siberia, while bigger rallies were expected in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Putin’s hometown.
Most of the demonstrations have not been sanctioned by authorities, and police detained some protesters.
Navalny has declared his intention to run for president in the election in March next year, even though a criminal conviction he calls politically motivated bars him from running.
In an address dictated from his jail cell, the 41-year-old Yale-educated lawyer with a street-smart image and a penchant for catchy slogans on Friday compared life under Putin’s regime to a forced diet of “turnip.”
“If we do nothing, they will be feeding us this damn turnip for the rest of our lives, and our children too,” Navalny said.
In a strongly worded video address released by Navalny’s campaign team, one of Russia’s most acclaimed film directors, Andrei Zvyagintsev, slammed Putin for hindering Navalny.
He criticized the prospect of Russians voting in polls where “we are asked to choose one out of one.”
Putin earlier this week said that he has not yet decided whether he will seek another six-year term, but he is widely expected to run in March elections and win.
Navalny brought tens of thousands of supporters — many of them students and schoolchildren — onto the streets for unauthorized protests across the country on March 26 and June 12.
The participation of minors in opposition rallies stunned authorities, with the protests ending in violent clashes.
Police arrested more than 1,000 people in Moscow alone at the March 26 demonstration.
Navalny was detained even before arriving at those two rallies in Moscow and served 15 and 25 days in jail for organizing the events. Several protesters were given lengthy prison terms.
Navalny has been able to breathe new life into the protest movement by tapping into the anger of Russia’s young generation who have grown up under Putin and yearn for change.
Polina Kostyleva, the head of the opposition politician’s campaign headquarters in Saint Petersburg, was hard-pressed to say how many people would turn out in the city yesterday after the latest series of arrests and searches targeting Navalny and his supporters.
“Anything can happen. Young people show up — they have nothing to lose,” she told reporters. “This event will show the authorities’ attitude towards Navalny and us.”
Navalny was arrested last week as he was planning to travel to a rally in a provincial city, part of his election campaign that has seen him rouse supporters across the country.
Over the past few days, Navalny’s Moscow campaign headquarters and several other offices have been raided.
Officials have said he is not eligible to run for president because he is serving a suspended sentence for fraud.
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