Kremlin: thousands of arrests due response to protests
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MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin said Thursday that thousands of arrests at protests against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were a necessary response to the unsanctioned rallies, and strongly rebuffed Western criticism.
Asked about the harsh treatment of thousands of detainees, who spent many hours on police buses and were put in overcrowded cells, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that they have to bear responsibility for joining the unsanctioned protests.
“The situation wasn’t provoked by law enforcement, it was provoked by participants in unlawful actions,” Peskov said in a call with reporters.
Massive protests erupted after Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who is Putin’s most determined political foe, was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from his five-month convalescence in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning, which he has blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny any involvement and claim they have no proof that he was poisoned despite tests by several European labs.
FILE – In this Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021 file photo, Lyubov Sobol, ally of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaks during her news conference via video conference in Moscow, Russia. Last week, a Moscow court put Navalny’s brother, Oleg, his top associate Lyubov Sobol and several other key allies under house arrest for two months as part of a criminal probe into alleged violations of coronavirus regulations during protests. The words on her tribune reading “Free Navalny”. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File) 
FILE – In this Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021 file photo, a man with a sign ‘Navalny’ on his back stands in front of riot policemen blocking the way to protester during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia. A prison sentence for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a sweeping crackdown on protesters demanding his release reflect the Kremlin’s steely determination to fend off threats to its political monopoly at any cost. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File) 
FILE – In this Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021 file photo, detained protesters walk escorted by police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia. A prison sentence for Navalny and a sweeping crackdown on protesters demanding his release reflect the Kremlin’s steely determination to fend off threats to its political monopoly at any cost. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File) 
FILE – In this Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021 file photo, servicemen of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) gather at the Red Square to prevent a protest rally in Moscow, Russia. A prison sentence for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a sweeping crackdown on protesters demanding his release reflect the Kremlin’s steely determination to fend off threats to its political monopoly at any cost. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File) 
FILE – In this Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021 file photo, police officers detain a Navalny supporter during a protest in St. Petersburg, Russia. A prison sentence for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a sweeping crackdown on protesters demanding his release reflect the Kremlin’s steely determination to fend off threats to its political monopoly at any cost. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File) 
FILE – In this handout photo taken from a footage provided by Moscow City Court on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny shows a heard symbol standing in the cage during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia. A prison sentence for Navalny and a sweeping crackdown on protesters demanding his release reflect the Kremlin’s steely determination to fend off threats to its political monopoly at any cost. (Moscow City Court via AP, File) 
FILE – In this Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021 file photo, people clash with police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia. A prison sentence for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a sweeping crackdown on protesters demanding his release reflect the Kremlin’s steely determination to fend off threats to its political monopoly at any cost. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) 
In this photo taken from the Associated Press Television video, Lyubov Sobol, a Russian opposition activist, arrives to the headquarters of the Investigative Committee in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. Sobol, a top associate of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was formally charged Thursday of violating coronavirus restrictions during opposition protests. (AP Photo/Vladimir Kondrashov)
A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Navalny to prison for two years and eight months, finding that he violated the terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany, a ruling that caused international outrage and triggered new protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Following Navalny’s arrest, authorities also have moved swiftly to silence and isolate his allies. Last week, a Moscow court put his brother, Oleg, top associate Lyubov Sobol, and several other key allies under house arrest — without access to the internet — for two months as part of a criminal probe into alleged violations of coronavirus restrictions during protests.
On Thursday, Sobol was formally charged with the incitement of violation of sanitary regulations by organizing protests.
Protests have spread across Russia’s 11 time zones over the past two weekends, drawing tens of thousands in the largest show of discontent with Putin’s rule in years.
In a no-holds-barred response to the protest, police arrested over 10,000 protest participants across Russia and beat scores, according to the OVD-Info group monitoring arrests. Many detainees had to spend hours on police buses after detention facilities in Moscow and St. Petersburg quickly ran out of space, or were cramped into cells intended to accommodate far fewer inmates.
Peskov said that Russia won’t listen to Western criticism of Navalny’s sentencing and police action against protesters.
