Russian Police Detain Two At Meeting Of Opposition Figures, As Crackdown Continues
May 22, 2021 17:59 GMT
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Russian police detained two people at a meeting of opposition figures and municipal deputies in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, in the latest crackdown on Kremlin critics ahead of elections later this year.
Yulia Galyamina, an opposition leader from Moscow, and Vitaly Bovar, a municipal deputy from St. Petersburg, were both detained on May 22.
Police broke up the meeting at a hotel soon after it started, citing a breach of coronavirus rules. This is political persecution, said Galyamina, who posted a video of herself being taken into police custody.
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Russian police detain around 200 people, including leading opposition figures, at Moscow meeting
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Published 13 March 2021
Russian police on Saturday arrested around 200 opposition politicians and municipal deputies at a Moscow conference as authorities tighten the screws on Kremlin critics ahead of parliamentary elections.
A police raid on an opposition conference dedicated to running for municipal office came after President Vladimir Putin’s top critic Alexei Navalny was jailed for two and a half years last month and more than 10,000 protesters detained across the country.
While Russian police routinely break up opposition protests, the mass arrests of municipal deputies at a conference in Moscow were unprecedented.
Participants from more than 50 of Russia’s regions had gathered to discuss parliamentary and local elections in September at a forum organised by a project backed by prominent Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.