Team Navalny announces location of this weekend’s protest in Moscow
Alexey Navalny’s Moscow headquarters has announced a start time and location for this weekend’s rally protesting his detention.
On Twitter, Navalny’s team called on his supporters in Moscow to gather at Lubyanka Square (the location of the FSB headquarters) and the nearby Staraya Square at noon on Sunday, January 31.
“We will march through Moscow peacefully, demanding the release of Alexey Navalny,” the announcement says.
The Moscow Regional Court is set to consider an appeal against the decision to jail Alexey Navalny on Thursday, January 28.
Protests opposing Navalny’s detention took place in dozens of cities across Russia on Saturday, January 23. In Moscow, the demonstrators initially gathered on Pushkin Square. From there, they broke off along several different routes. Around 9:00 p.m., the last remaining protesters had gathered near the Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison where Navalny is being held.
On January 17, Alexey Navalny was arrested upon returning to Russian from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from Novichok-type nerve agent poisoning. Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) had filed a complaint against Navalny for violating the terms of his probation in the Yves Rocher case while abroad. On January 18, the Khimki City Court remanded Navalny in custody for 30 days during an extraordinary hearing at a police station.
A hearing on the FSIN’s complaint against Navalny is scheduled for Tuesday, February 2. The Russian prison authorities are seeking to revoke Navalny’s probation (which technically ended on December 30, 2020) and incarcerate him under a reinstated 3.5-year sentence. Navalny’s associates are planning to hold a protest near the courthouse on that day.
On January 23, protests opposing Navalny’s detention took place in dozens of cities across Russia. Russian law enforcement officials carried out a record-breaking number of arrests that day; more than 3,700 country wide, according to independent monitors.
The Yves Rocher case
In 2014, Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg were found guilty of embezzlement and laundering funds stolen from two Russian companies associated with the French cosmetics brand “Yves Rocher.” Oleg Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and Alexey Navalny was given a 3.5-year probation sentence. The brothers pleaded not guilty, calling the case politically motivated. In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights declared the verdicts “unjust” and ordered the Russian authorities to pay the Navalny brothers compensation. Their sentences were never overturned, however.