Navalny vs Putin: what next?
A street art portrait of incarcerated Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Navalny s recent arrest has sparked the largest wave of protests across Russia in recent years. (Vincenzo Livieri/IPA/ABACAPRESS.COM via REUTERS)
Tens of thousands took to the streets across Russia on January 23 to protest against the arrest of Alexei Navalny and to demonstrate their growing frustration with the Putin regime. Russian authorities had detained Navalny days earlier upon his return from Germany, where he had been receiving medical treatment following an August 2020 assassination attempt that has since been linked to the Kremlin.
The comparatively large size and nationwide scale of the recent protests surprised many observers and appears to have unnerved the Russian authorities. Police detained over three thousand protesters and bystanders on January 23, while there has since been a wave of arrests targeting leading opposition figures.