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Russian police arrest over 3,000 protesters demanding Navalny's release

24 January 2021
Dan Ackermann

Russian police on Saturday arrested more than 3,300 people as protesters nationwide demanded that opposition leader Alexey Navalny be released from jail.

Details: Demonstrations that began in the eastern regions of Russia spread west to more than 60 cities. At least 3,324 of people were detained and tens of thousands of others protested into the night despite the presence of law enforcement and extremely low temperatures, per the OVD-Info group, which monitors political arrests.

The big picture: Navalny called on his supporters to protest after he was arrested, per Al Jazeera.

  • Thousands of people gathered in Moscow to march to the Kremlin, The New York Times writes. Meanwhile, protesters in Novosibirsk, Russia's third-largest city, were chanting "Putin is a thief."
  • Navalny called his supporters to protest after he was arrested, per Al Jazeera.

What they're saying: U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Saturday that it strongly condemned "the use of harsh tactics against protesters and journalists this weekend in cities throughout Russia."

  • "Continued efforts to suppress Russians' rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, the arrest of opposition figure Aleksey Navalny, and the crackdown on protests that followed are troubling indications of further restrictions on civil society and fundamental freedoms," the State Department continued, calling on Russian authorities to release all protesters, as well as Navalny, without conditions.
  • "We urge Russia to fully cooperate with the international community's investigation into the poisoning of Aleksey Navalny and credibly explain the use of a chemical weapon on its soil," it added.

Context: The Russian opposition leader was arrested upon his return to Moscow from Germany on Jan. 17, which came five month after a near-fatal poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok. He blamed the Kremlin for the poisoning, though the Kremlin has denied responsibility.

Background: Navalny made his name as a video blogger and anti-corruption activist. He has organized some of the largest protests against Putin, who refuses to refer to him by name.

Editor's note: This article was updated to reflect the latest number of arrests.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly 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.