Hundreds detained during Moscow protest over journalist's arrest - Action News
Home WebMail Tuesday, November 26, 2024, 11:17 AM | Calgary | -13.1°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
World

Hundreds detained during Moscow protest over journalist's arrest

Russian police have detained over 400 people, including opposition politician Alexei Navalny, at a protest Wednesday in Moscow calling for the punishment of officers involved in the alleged framing of a journalist.

Demonstration held day after drug charges against investigative journalist dropped

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was one of dozens of people arrested during Wednesday's rally in support of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, who was detained by police, accused of drug offences and later freed from house arrest. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Russian police detained morethan 400 people on Wednesday, including opposition politician Alexei Navalny, at a protest in Moscow calling forpunishment for police officers involved in the alleged framingof a journalist, the OVD-Info monitoring group said.

Police abruptly dropped drug charges a day earlier against investigative journalist Ivan Golunov, a rare U-turn by authorities in the face of anger from his supporters who said he was targeted over his reporting.

Golunov, 36, known for exposing corruption among Moscow city officials, was detained by police last Thursday and accused of dealing drugs, an allegation he has denied.

The crude way supporters said Golunov was set up and detained triggered an unusual show of media unity and an uncharacteristically swift reversal from authorities nervous about social unrest at a time when President Vladimir Putin already faces disquiet over living standards.

The authorities had hoped freeing Golunov and promising punishment for those who allegedly framed him would appease his supporters, but they decided to go ahead with a protest on Wednesday, a public holiday in Russia, regardless.

Russian journalist Ivan Golunov, who was freed from house arrest after police abruptly dropped drugs charges against him, reacts while addressing the media near the city office of criminal investigations in Moscow on Tuesday. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

Reuters witnesses said well over 1,000 people marched through central Moscow, chanting "Russia will be free," "Russia without Putin" and "Down with the Tsar" as police warned them not to break the law and blocked access to certain streets.

Some of the protesters wore white T-shirts saying,"I am/We are Ivan Golunov," the same front-page headline carried by Russia's three leading daily newspapers on Monday.

Many of the marchers and those detained were prominent Russian journalists and activists.

"We came to show the authorities that we have consolidated, that we are united," said a protester known asVsevolod, 24. "We demand that hundreds of thousands of (criminal) cases where people are sitting in prison unfairly now be reviewed."

Protest deemed illegal

The authorities had warned protesters that their demonstration would be illegal and could pose a risk to public safety.

Under Russian law, the time and place of protests involving more than one person needs to be agreed with the authorities in advance. Organizers of Wednesday's event had demanded that Moscow city officials negotiate those terms with them during a live broadcast, something they said officials refused to do.

A Reuters witness saw at least three police officers bundle Navalny into a truck.

Sergei Udaltsov, a left-wing political activist, said the Golunov case was an important moment.

"If we do not show solidarity with each other, the system will break all of us one by one."

Another protester, Ivan, 28, explained why protesters had defied the police.

"The freeing of Golunov was not a victory. It was a tactical move by the authorities to prevent disorder breaking out today. But we came here anyway."