Navalny protests: Kremlin meets Russian demonstrators with fiercest crackdown in years cnn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cnn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kremlin meets Russian protesters with fiercest crackdown in years
Thousands of people in Moscow and across Russia who took to the streets Sunday were met with the harshest show of force the country has seen in recent years.
Protesters throughout the country had gathered for the second weekend in a row to support jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who has been held by Russian authorities since mid-January.
More than 5,000 people were detained in at least 85 cities as of late Sunday, according to the independent monitoring group OVD-Info a record since 2011.
In Moscow, the capital, more than 1,600 people were arrested, including Navalny’s wife Yulia, though she was later released.