Navalny supporters call for new protests in Russia | Russia

Supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called for more rallies across the country this weekend to demand his release, after he was placed in remand for probation violations he denies.

One from Navalny Leading allies, lawyer and politician Lyubov Sobol, told reporters on Tuesday that his anti-corruption movement would continue to operate, although many people were arrested after protests sweeping Russian cities over the weekend.

When a wave of criminal cases was launched against those detained by the police, a woman who was kicked on the floor by a police officer with a baton in St. Petersburg emerged as a symbol of the heavy way in which the authorities repressed the protesters.

The case of Margarita Yudina, 54, became a national scandal after footage of her being kicked in the stomach by a police officer for asking why the police officer and his colleagues had detained went viral online.

In the video, Yudina is seen falling backwards on the sidewalk after being kicked, hitting her head hard. Hospital documents show that she suffered a concussion and needed stitches on the back of her neck.

Although the official visited her at the hospital and apologized, Yudina told Novaya Gazeta on Tuesday that she wanted justice.

“This case needs to take its legal course,” she said. “Therefore, I intend to appeal to the Investigation Committee and find out who attacked me. I want the person who kicked me to be found, named and punished according to the law. “

The Kremlin said the “violence” of some protesters was aggressive and unprecedented. The incidences of police violence were much lower and are being investigated, he said.

But Navalny’s supporters were not intimidated, Sobol said, and would continue the demonstrations calling for his release, despite “the arrests of our followers and allies, open criminal investigations (and) criminal investigations that are yet to come.

She said they planned protests planned for January 31 and February 2, when a court should consider motions to convert her suspended sentence into a real prison sentence.

She added that one of her goals was to prevent President Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, in the next parliamentary elections.

“There are many plans and tasks for the near future, [as well as] medium and long term [ones], and everyone understands what needs to be done tomorrow, a month from now and half a year from now, ”said Sobol.

“One of the main objectives is … to destroy the United Russia monopoly in the parliamentary elections that will take place in September”

The crackdown on demonstrators continued to cause international outrage. Leading diplomats from the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as the high representative of the European Union, condemned Navalny’s “political arrest and detention” and said they were “deeply concerned about the detention of thousands of peaceful demonstrators and journalists ”.

Joe Biden raised concerns about the case when he spoke to Putin for the first time as president of the United States on Tuesday.