Navalny protests: UK condemns Russian police after more than 5,000 people arrested at protests

[AntiFascist]

Source: Sky News

...
Riot police left some protesters bloody and badly beaten on January 31...

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called on the Kremlin to release those detained in the demonstrations - as Sky News' Moscow correspondent Diana Magnay described a "vast police presence" acting as a "ring of steel" around the centre of the capital.

Mr Raab said in a statement: "We condemn the Russian authorities' indiscriminate and arbitrary arrest of peaceful protesters and journalists.
...

...
Amnesty International said so many people were arrested in Moscow that detention centers in the capital had "run out of space" and people were being held in deportation facilities.

“This is the biggest protest phenomenon in the entire time of Putin's presidency, in all 20 years. It will be difficult to estimate its size, but its geography -- the number of cities -- is unprecedented. We see a different generation of protesters who are not afraid,” Kirill Rogov, a political analyst, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.


Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/navalny-protests-hundreds-arrests-as-rallies-break-out-across-russia-12204181

---

Protests are growing larger in Russia and they can't detain every protester.

[PersianStar]

1. Is Navalny controlled opposition ?

Former KGB Putin is clever enough to pull off something like that!

[orangecrush]

2. Nope

[AntiFascist]

3. If so, I would think Putin would have this taken down from his platform website immediately:

https://2018.navalny.com/en/platform/

...
To begin an active search abroad of the Russian money stolen as a result of corruption crimes and ensure their return into the country. This money will also go into the PFR-affiliated fund.

[PersianStar]

4. Vague enough to target many expatriates

[AntiFascist]

5. This is from 2010 while Medvedev was president...

though Navalny's blog site no longer seems to work:

https://carnegie.ru/2010/12/08/navalny-effect-rospil.net-pub-42105
...
Recently, prominent blogger Alexey Navalny—a lawyer who made a name for himself by campaigning for the rights of minority shareholders in major companies to gain access to corporate information—accused the Russian state-owned company Transneft of embezzling $4 billion of public money during construction of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, citing an Accounts Chamber report. Coincidentally, just as this scandal came to light, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, speaking on the government’s behalf, thanked Transneft—headed by his former intelligence colleague in Dresden, Nikolay Tokarev—for its effective work.

On December 4, Navalny announced the launch of RosPil.net. The site collects information on obvious violations within the state procurement system. As such, it serves as an example of realizing one of the goals set out in President Dmitry Medvedev’s recent annual presidential address: a revision of the corruption laws relating to state purchases. Approximately 1 trillion rubles per year has been embezzled within the procurement system, according to the Presidential Administration’s Control Directorate.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/15/dmitry-medvedev-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-robin-to-putins-batman

"In a 2017 video seen by 33 million people on YouTube, the opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, accused Medvedev of secretly owning palaces, yachts and an Italian vineyard."

[58Sunliner]

7. If he was "controlled" I highly doubt they would have poisoned him.

[PersianStar]

11. Yet he lives

And in spite of being repeatedly arrested and jailed... he has been repeatedly freed.

[58Sunliner]

19. He has a lot of supporters.

Making him a dead martyr would be an international mistake. Vlad is a psychopath, but he is smart and cunning. Without international outrage I doubt he would have survived being poisoned. Could be he wanted him incapacitated, but not dead. Poison can be tricky.

[VladmireTrumpkins]

8. No he is not

He is the real deal

[PersianStar]

10. Controlled opposition does appear real

He who wields power knows opposition will arise that might prove to be harmful if not deadly... so he nips that in the bud by creating his own opposition. His "controlled opposition" is supposed to appear real.

In Orwell's novel, "1984", Goldstein was Big Brother's "controlled opposition"

[AntiFascist]

13. I would say that the people of Russia are now exerting control over Putin...

this is not just a personality cult, as is mostly the case with Trump. Russians are fed up with all the corruption in their government. As I tried to show above, Navalny has been exposing this corruption for the past 10+ years. Navalny is not the real problem for Putin, it's the people rising up that he fears the most.

[PersianStar]

14. Yet I've seen a priest kiss Putin's hand...

... while many churches have been built under his rule.

Time will tell what the Russian people will do.

[AntiFascist]

15. That also explains most of the Evangelical support for Trump and their excusing Russian efforts...

I would agree that the 180 degree turnaround for Russian adoption of Christianity is what drives much of the continuing support for Putin.

[PersianStar]

16. Interesting

There is truth in your analogy

[VladmireTrumpkins]

17. Russians I speak with are fed up with the corruption in high places

they are struggling harder and harder to make ends meet yet the leaders are not only millionaires but billionaires as well.

[PersianStar]

18. Sounds just like the USA !!!

[PersianStar]

12. "Pussy Riot" ??

https://democraticunderground.com/11683244

I remember years ago when PR protested inside Moscow's Church of Christ the Savior. My first impression was - they were what Russians have historically called "holy fools" - and while inside the church I did not see them play their music instruments nor go beyond the icon screen [both are forbidden in a ROC.]

[VladmireTrumpkins]

6. I find it strange

the people of Russia are fighting for freedom while far to many here fight for a Russian style government with Trump as leader..

[PersianStar]

9. Strange indeed

Who could have foreseen it !