June 12 (UPI) — Russian police arrested opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday after he urged tens of thousands of protesters to publicly support his plan against President Vladimir Putin and corruption in the Kremlin.
Police arrested Navalny outside his apartment for spurring protesters to gather on unapproved streets in central Moscow for the demonstration, The Washington Post reported.
Hundreds of protesters were ultimately arrested as more than 100 other demonstrations emerged across Russia on Monday — the largest anti-government showing the eastern European country has seen in years. Navalny’s rally was larger than one he organized in March.
Russia’s state-run Sputnik news agency said officials rejected applications for protest venues because events celebrating Russia Day were already being held at the venues requested.
Protesters, rejecting the suggested alternative sites, nonetheless gathered in the unapproved locations. Sputnik reported some of the demonstrators became violent when they were told to disperse and were arrested.
Navalny said that although the city gave permission for a demonstration, every company from which he tried to rent stage and sound equipment told him the mayor’s office prevented them from doing business with the protesters.
Navalny, 40, is leader of the opposition Party of Progress and a frequent critic of the graft and corruption he says is widespread in the Putin administration. It is likely, but not certain, that Putin will seek a fourth term next year. Navalny said in December he would run to oppose the incumbent leader.
More than 5,000 people demonstrated in Novosibirsk, Siberia, on Monday, its largest since a 1991 rally at the end of the Soviet era. Four thousand marchers were reported in Omsk and 2,000 in Irkutsk, which are also in Sibera.
