Alexei Navalny, a jailed Kremlin critic, celebrated his third birthday while being held Sunday by participating in rallies in more than 100 places around the world, from Tel Aviv and Sydney to Tokyo and Milan.
Alexei Navalny Gather in Russia
Numerous people gathered in the Museumplein park in the heart of Amsterdam, shouting slogans like “Putin is a killer” and “Free Alexei Navalny .”
Ilya, a protester, told The Moscow Times, “I’m here because I feel it’s my responsibility to show my support to Alexei,” adding that he had been a Alexei Navalny supporter since 2013.
These protests serve as a crucial reminder that Alexei has not been forgotten and that other individuals hold opposing political views, according to Ilya.
The protests take place as 47-year-old Alexei Navalny is accused of crimes that could land him in jail for a further 30 years, according to his supporters, in an effort to silence the most vociferous domestic opponent of President Vladimir Putin.
Similar protests were also organised in London, Berlin, and Brussels, as well as in Yerevan, Armenia, and Tbilisi, Georgia—two major destinations for Russi an refugees who left their country after the offensive in Ukraine.
Demonstrators were captured on camera in the Georgian capital shouting “Freedom to Alexei Navalny” and “No to war!”
While Alexei Navalny team claimed that it anticipated that the majority of Russi an expatriates would demonstrate their support for the jailed politician, it also encouraged citizens of Russi a to join the demonstration, pledging to offer legal and financial assistance to anyone caught for participating in it.
There were significant legal and security dangers for anyone wishing to protest inside.
Since the Kremlin began its war on Ukraine more than 15 months ago, practically all forms of dissent have been subject to a widespread crackdown.
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has blacklisted Alexei Navalny political and activist networks as “extremist” and “undesirable,” which means that collaborating with these groups could result in criminal penalties.
According to the police monitoring organisation OVD-Info, at least 90 people were detained across on Sunday for supporting Alexei Navalny, including 53 in Moscow, 12 in St. Petersburg, and protesters in further-flung locations like Barnaul, Yelabuga, and the Samara region.
Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest city in , saw demonstrators spray-paint the phrase “Freedom to Alexei Navalny” on several structures. Pickets were also set up in Rostov-on-Don, in the south, and in the northern cities of Yoshkar-Ola and Novosibirsk, in Siberia.
Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, two imprisoned opposition figures from , were also honoured during the roughly hour-long event in Amsterdam.
Olga, a Russian activist in her fifties, declared: “I oppose policy and support the release of political prisoners.”
Such demonstrations won’t influence the nation’s leaders; instead, she continued, they provide as psychological support for the prisoners being held captive and who are suffering because of us.
Navalny was detained upon his arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in 2021 and is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for fraud charges that his supporters claim are politically motivated.
After recovering in Germany from a potentially fatal poisoning in 2020 that he attributes to the Kremlin, he went back to Moscow. Investigative journalists linked the attack to Russia’s secret agencies while Western scientists determined that the poison was the illegal Soviet-designed nerve toxin Novichok. Kremlin involvement has been categorically rejected.
According to Navalny’s team, the Russian government opened up as many as 10 new criminal cases against him in April, placing him at risk of receiving an additional 30 years in prison.
His friends have frequently cautioned that the harsh conditions he is subjected to in prison, such as being kept in solitary confinement at least 15 times, are having a negative impact on his health.
The Russian government and President Putin have been urged “to stop abusing” Navalny, according to the United Nations and hundreds of Russian doctors, who also want Navalny to have a “full examination” and access to appropriate medical care.
From behind bars on Sunday, Navalny wrote a letter to his followers in which he expressed his optimism that “telling the truth and upholding justice will become something ordinary and not at all dangerous in Russia.”
“I want to extend my sincere gratitude and greetings to all political prisoners in Russia, Belarus, and other nations today. The majority of them struggle much more than I do, Navalny wrote in a message on his Telegram account.