Russian riot police arrest dozens of supporters of Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny

RUSSIAN police on Sunday (June 6) arrested more than 100 people who had taken to the streets to mark the 47th birthday of Alexei Navalny, the country’s most prominent opposition leader, a protest-monitoring group said. OVD-Info said in a statement that 109 people had been detained in 23 cities as of pm Moscow time (1942 GMT). Authorities have clamped down heavily on signs of dissent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and in most cities, only a handful of people were held. Navalny is serving combined sentences of 11-1/2 years for fraud and contempt of court on charges that he says were trumped up to silence him. Footage from Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia’s two largest cities, showed police arresting individual demonstrators. One man could be seen briefly holding up a sign before Moscow police ushered him away, bent over, as he groaned in pain. Another man, who held up a sign in English that read “Free Navalny“, was also arrested in Moscow. The Sun newspaper brings you the latest breaking news videos and explainers from the UK and around the world Become a Sun Subscriber and hit the bell to be the first to know Read The Sun: Like The Sun on Facebook: Follow The Sun on Twitter: Subscribe to The Sun on Snapchat: