Wife of Russian Dissident Navalny Among Hundreds Arrested at Rallies Across Country

The wife of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is among hundreds of Nalvany supporters Russian police have arrested Saturday during protests across the country.Yulia Navalnaya confirmed her arrest in Moscow in an Instagram post created from inside a police van, apologizing for the look of her posting. “Sorry for poor quality. Very bad light in a paddy wagon,” she wrote Saturday.FILE – Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaks with the media outside a hospital, where Alexei receives medical treatment in Omsk, Russia, Aug. 21, 2020.Thousands of Navalny’s supporters were in the streets of more than 60 Russian cities Saturday to demand the Kremlin critic’s immediate release, defying the measures taken by police to break up the protests, which they have declared illegal.The protests started in the Far East and Siberia, including Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and Chita, with thousands of participants, according to Navalny supporters.In Khabarovsk, a Russian city on the border with China, about 8,000 kilometers east of Moscow, pro-Navalny protesters clashed with police trying to prevent the gathering.Law enforcement officers stand guard during a rally in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 23, 2021.The nationwide protests are the first organized by Navalny’s supporters since he returned from Germany, where he was recovering from poisoning by a nerve agent. He was arrested immediately on his arrival in Moscow.Navalny has openly accused President Vladimir Putin of ordering Russia’s security services to carry out the poisoning, a charge the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.The United States and other Western countries have strongly condemned Navalny’s arrest and demanded his unconditional release.
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