Throughout Russia, sizable, unauthorized rallies took place on January 23 for the release of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny from prison. Some 2,432 people had been detained nationwide by about 9 p.m., Moscow time, on January 23, according to the non-governmental law-enforcement watchdog OVD-Info.
Officials had warned the public against attending the demonstrations, both because of the COVID-19 infection risk and because the gatherings had not been approved. Multiple detentions of Navalny's colleagues and supporters occurred in the days before the rallies.
Navalny was sentenced to 30 days in jail on January 18, the day after his return to Russia from Germany, where he had been treated for a poisoning with the Novichok nerve-agent.
Massive Detentions Throughout Russia At Pro-Navalny Demonstrations
The detentions began in Moscow's Pushkin Square long before the official start of the rally for opposition leader Aleksei Navalny's release from prison.
Current Time correspondent Aleksei Aleksandrov reported that the detentions in Moscow often appeared arbitrary. Young men simply standing on Pushkin Square, without posters, were targeted regularly.
This man, later seen detained, appeared to be one of the first to display a poster (declaring "Freedom for Navalny") on Moscow's Pushkin Square.
Riot police in Moscow appeared to work usually in groups of four to six to detain one person. Women appeared to make up the minority of detainees.
With a statue of Peter the Great in the background, riot police in St. Petersburg detain a woman on the city's Senate Square, the historic site of an 1825 revolt against Tsar Nicholas I.
Protests are occurring in at least 13 major cities throughout Russia, including Khabarovsk, Omsk, Irkutsk, and Yekaterinburg. Here, a detention takes place in the Pacific Ocean port city of Vladivostok.
Protesters scuffle with police in Vladivostok. As of 1:30 p.m., Moscow time, law enforcement had detained 35 people in the city, according to non-governmental law-enforcement watchdog OVD-Info.
A man is detained in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk. The city was the site of large-scale demonstrations in 2020 against the July 2020 arrest of a popular regional governor, Sergei Furgal, for alleged involvement in murders - a charge the governor denied. Demonstrators saw Furgal's arrest as intended to eliminate a potential rival to President Vladimir Putin.
In Omsk, a Siberian city of nearly 1.2 million, 13 detentions had been recorded by the non-governmental law-enforcement watchdog OVD-Info, as of 1:30 p.m., Moscow time, on January 23.
Omsk protesters braved temperatures of -28 degrees Celsius (-18 degrees Fahrenheit) to demonstrate for Aleksei Navalny's release.
In Omsk, a man holds a placard with Aleksei Navalny's photo and the slogan "All for one and one for all."
By mid-afternoon on January 23, some 87 detentions, one of the highest numbers in Russia, had occurred in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, according to the non-governmental law-enforcement watchdog OVD-Info.
In the region of Bashkortostan, just north of Kazakhstan, pro-Navalny demonstrators gathered in the regional seat, Ufa. Ten detentions were reported there by non-governmental police-monitor OVD-Info, as of 1:30 p.m., Moscow time.
A one-person protest in the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania. The woman's poster calls for freedom for Navalny and all political prisoners.
Police face off with protesters in Yakutsk, where reported January 23 temperatures were as low as -52 degrees Celsius (-62 degrees Fahrenheit). Thirteen detentions had occurred there by early afternoon, according to the non-governmental law-enforcement watchdog OVD-Info.
A protester in Novosibirsk wears a Russian flag with the slogan "We're in charge here."