human rights
Demonstrations on the birthday of Kremlin opponent Navalny
Police officers detain a demonstrator on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow. photo
© AP/dpa
Russian Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been in prison for more than two years. Countries around the world have now demonstrated for his release.
On the occasion of the 47th birthday of the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, people in Russia and various other countries demonstrated for his release. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Jarmysch published photos on Twitter on Sunday, including from Japan, Australia and Georgia. A rally was also announced in Berlin.
According to civil rights activists, 90 demonstrators were arrested in Russian cities by the evening, more than half of them in the capital Moscow.
Navalny let it be known that he was in a good mood, although of course he would rather be with his family than in the penal camp 260 kilometers northeast of Moscow. “But the way life works is that societal progress and a better future can only be achieved if a certain number of people are willing to pay the price for their right to their beliefs,” he wrote. “And there will certainly come a day when speaking the truth and standing up for justice will be something commonplace and safe in Russia.”
The most prominent critic of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has been a political prisoner in prison for alleged fraud for more than two years. So far he has been sentenced to nine years in prison. In a new trial that is about to begin, he faces up to 30 more years. In 2020, Navalny barely survived an attack with the neurotoxin Novichok, for which the Russian state is blamed in the West. For months he has been placed almost continuously in an isolation cell two by three meters in size. Human rights activists speak of torture.