In photos: Over 5,000 arrested during Navalny protests in Russia
01 February 2021
Over 5,000 demonstrators were detained in major Russian cities Sunday, as authorities cracked down on people who defied orders and protested against the detention of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, monitoring groups said.
Why it matters: Navalny's detention has united Russians from a variety of backgrounds, including those who are against his politics, to protest the authoritarian leadership of President Vladimir Putin, per the New York Times.
- Russian prosecutors have demanded that social media platforms censor calls to join protests, AP notes.
People with Russian national flags take part in an unauthorized protest in Novosibirsk. Demonstrators rallied despite police arresting thousands of protesters last week. Photo: Kirill Kukhmar/TASS via Getty Image
Police officers detain a protester in St. Petersburg. Moscow School for Social and Economic Sciences sociologist Konstantin Gaaze told the NYT, "Navalny has, for the first time, sparked a Russian protest movement against the president." Photo: Sergei Mikhailichenko/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Riot police at an unauthorized rally in Vladivostok. Photo: Yuri Smityuk/TASS via Getty Images
A police officer detains a demonstrator during an unauthorized protest in the Far East city of Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha. Photo: Vadim Skryabin/TASS via Getty Images
Moscow law enforcement officers stand guard outside Chistye Prudy metro station ahead of a planned unauthorized rally. Authorities shut stations and were restricting movement across the city, the BBC notes. Photo: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images
Demonstrators and police officers in Yakutsk, where temperatures have hit -39 degrees Fahrenheit. Photo: Vadim Skryabin/TASS via Getty Image
Riot police detain a demonstrator in Novosibirsk. Photo: Kirill Kukhmar\TASS via Getty Images
The scene in St Petersburg ahead of an unauthorized rally in the port city. Photo: Alexander Demianchuk/TASS via Getty Images
Police officers detain a demonstrator during an unauthorized protest in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains. Photo: Donat Sorokin/TASS via Getty Images
Novosibirsk police officers detain demonstrators. Photo: Kirill Kukhmar/TASS via Getty Images
Vladivostok police officers detain a demonstrator. Photo: Yuri Smityuk/TASS via Getty Images
Yulia Navalny, Alexei Navalny's wife, joined protesters in Moscow, Russia. Yulia has been released after she was arrested by police officers who did not properly identify themselves, according to a tweet from Navalny's team. Photo: Yulia Navalny via AP
Police block the street at Matrosskaya Tishina, the penitentiary where Alexei Navalny is being held in Moscow. Photo: AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov
Moscow police officers detain a demonstrator. Photo: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Police officers detain a demonstrator in the Siberian city of Omsk, Russia. Photo: AP Photo
Police officers detain a demonstrator in St. Petersburg. Photo: AP Photo/Valentin Egorshin
Police officers detain demonstrator in the capital of Buryatia, near the Russia-Mongolia border. Photo: AP Photo/Anna Ogorodnik
Go deeper: Biden's Russia challenge
Editor's note: This article has been updated with more photos and the latest arrest total.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.