MOSCOW – The Russians met in support of opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny in more than 100 cities on Saturday, the biggest protests in the country since at least 2017.
It was a wave of anger that hit the country’s 11 time zones, starting in the Pacific port cities and advancing onto the streets of Siberia. The biggest protests, which drew well over 10,000 people, were in Moscow, the capital, where riot police in camouflage, armor and shiny black helmets wielded batons to try to keep the crowd out.
More than 3,000 people have been detained across the country, an activist group said. Many of those who joined the protests, which were not authorized, seemed indifferent to the threat of imprisonment while shouting slogans against President Vladimir V. Putin.
But it seemed unlikely that the protests would pressure the Kremlin to change course. State media condemned them as a “wave of aggression” and the police swore to prosecute anyone who had attacked the police.
The question is whether more protests will occur – and if more Russians, frustrated by income stagnation and official corruption after two decades of Putin’s rule – will join the Navalny movement. On Saturday night, his supporters were already promising to hold more rallies next weekend.
“If Putin thinks the most frightening things are behind him, he is deeply and naively mistaken,” said Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s aide.
Above, the riot police detain a man on Pushkin Square in central Moscow. The protesters seemed more brazen than in previous years. Below, protesters holding banners that read, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be silent ”and“ One for all and all for one ”under the statue of Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s best-known poet.
The riot police repeatedly attacked the crowd, swinging batons. In Moscow alone, more than 1,200 people have been detained, according to the activist group OVD-Info, which accounts for arrests.
Some people sought shelter in the cafes, shops and metro stations nearby. The policemen took some people into custody while releasing the majority, in an apparently arbitrary manner.
Some of the protesters, however, have not shied away from confronting the police. When the police attacked, some people struck back, sometimes throwing objects.
The call for protest went viral on social media, especially on TikTok, a short video app that is popular with children and teenagers. But the protesters represented a cross-section of generations.
Authorities shut down most of the mobile Internet connection around the protests, but images of arrests and clashes between protesters and police were still widely seen.
As in previous protests, the state’s show of strength was overwhelming. Research shows that Putin’s approval ratings are decreasing, and the Kremlin does not appear to be taking any chances.