Moscow (AFP) – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained Monday upon his release from jail after serving a 30-day sentence, as the Kremlin turned up the heat on Vladimir Putin’s top foe.
The 42-year-old anti-corruption campaigner was arrested outside the Moscow-based detention centre where he had just spent a month for organising an opposition protest. He now faces up to 20 days over another protest rally, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said.
He went on trial later Monday after spending some eight hours in a holding cell.
“Navalny is being tried for a September 9 rally,” Yarmysh said on Twitter.
Heeding Navalny’s call, thousands took to the streets of dozens of cities on September 9 against a controversial Kremlin-backed plan to raise the state pension age.
Navalny timed those protests to coincide with nationwide election day when Russians went to the polls to elect a Moscow mayor and regional governors, among others.
Ahead of those protests Navalny was jailed for 30 days for having organised an unauthorised rally in January.
The authorities now claim that because of Navalny two police officers were hurt during the September protests, Yarmysh said.
“They have to take it out on someone because of all their defeats and failures of the last weeks,” Leonid Volkov, a key ally of Navalny, said on Twitter.
Public anger over the pension age hike and falling living standards as a result of tough Western sanctions over Ukraine and other crises has led to rare election reverses for the Kremlin.
This month the Kremlin suffered a string of setbacks as candidates of the ruling United Russia party failed to secure victories in four regions, including in Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk in the far east, and south Siberia’s Khakasia.
On Sunday, a second round of gubernatorial elections was held in two regions — Vladimir, 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Moscow, and Khabarovsk but United Russia candidates were defeated by nationalists from the LDPR party.
In an unprecedented move, the second round run-off in Primorsky Krai was cancelled last week following protests over vote-rigging in favour of the Moscow-backed candidate and a re-run is expected to take place in three months.
Khakasia is yet to hold a run-off vote.
– ‘Panicking and taking revenge’ –
The plan to raise the state pension age has also seen Putin’s approval rating take a major hit.
About 3,000 people demonstrated in Moscow on Saturday against the reform in a protest organised by the Communist Party.
Another Navalny associate, Lyubov Sobol, said he was detained again “because the authorities are now weaker than ever”.
“The overwhelming majority of people are against raising the retirement age and (ruling) United Russia (party) was defeated in gubernatorial elections in key regions,” she wrote on Twitter.
“They are scared, panicking and taking revenge.”
Navalny shot to prominence as an organiser of huge anti-Putin rallies that shook Russia in 2011 and 2012 following claims of vote-rigging in parliamentary polls.
His anti-corruption rhetoric is especially popular with younger people who follow his online channels and blogs.
He was barred from contesting Russia’s presidential election in March and served a month in prison in June after organising demonstrations ahead of Putin’s swearing-in ceremony for a fourth Kremlin term in May.
The Yale-educated lawyer has faced a string of charges since he became the leading opposition figure in Russia.
His spokeswoman said Navalny had been arrested nine times and had spent a total of 172 days in jail.
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