Russian police start rounding up organizers a day ahead of Navalny's nationwide anti-Putin protests on Saturday

In several cities across Russia, police have started detaining activistsinvolved in organizing Alexey Navalny’s nationwide anti-Putin protests planned for May 5. Officers have reportedly detained members of Navalny’s staff in Tambov, Ryazan, and Krasnoyarsk. The social movement “Open Russia” says police have also detained two of its activists in St. Petersburg and Krasnodar who worked with local Navalny teams.

Russian opposition activists often come up with titles for their protests, and Navalny is calling Saturday’s nationwide demonstrations “He’s Not Our Tsar” — a nod to an earlier campaign against Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, called “You Don’t Call Him Dimon.” Navalny failed to obtain permits for his rallies in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, and police have threatened to detain anyone who assembles unlawfully.

What happened last time? In 2012, a day before Putin’s last inauguration, several thousand people protested in Moscow against his return to the Kremlin. More than 30 demonstrators were later convicted of inciting or inflicting violence on police officers in a controversial campaign known as the “Bolotnaya Square Case.”