Thousands join fresh Navalny Protests across Russia

Thousands of Russians took part in unauthorized protests to demand the release of Alexei Navalny, the jailed opposition leader.

More than 5,000 individuals have been detained, says a monitoring group. Police closed metro stations in Moscow and blocked the downtown area.

Navalny was jailed after recovering from an attempt to kill him with a nerve agent upon his return to Russia. He blames the assault on the security services, but the Kremlin denies it.

The opposition figure was arrested after arriving in Moscow from Germany, where he spent months recovering from the near-fatal incident.

Russian authorities say Navalny was supposed to report to police regularly because of a suspended sentence for embezzlement.

Also Read: Melvin Capital loses 53% in January due to GameStop drama

Navalny has denounced his detention as “blatantly illegal”, saying the authorities had allowed him to travel to Berlin for treatment for the Novichok poisoning, which happened in Russia last August.

Navalny has blamed state security agents under Putin’s orders for the attempt on his life and investigative journalists have named Russian FSB agents suspected of the poisoning. But the Kremlin denies involvement and disputes the conclusion, by Western weapons experts, that Novichok was used.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied reports he is the owner of a vast palace on the Black Sea, as alleged by Navalny in a video that has gone viral in Russia and has been watched more than 100m times.