RECORD NUMBER OF DETAINEES: HOW RALLIES IN SUPPORT OF NAVALNY WERE HELD ON JANUARY 31

Protest actions were held in Russia on January 31, gradually growing from rallies in support of Alexei Navalny to protests in defense of civil liberties. This time, in some of the cities, more participants took part in the protests than on January 23. According to the human rights activists, the number of detainees reached a record of 5135 people, and about a third of them were in Moscow.

According to OVD-Info, 1653 people were detained in Moscow per day, and 1159 were detained in St. Petersburg. The city authorities prepared in advance for a peaceful protest action of citizens that was not coordinated with them, having tied up the traffic in the area of ​​some metro stations and central streets.

In St. Petersburg, police blocked Nevsky Prospekt. All this ultimately led to the prompt transfer of the localizations of the processions to other points of the city.

The authorities' strategy of dividing human flows turned out to be successful.

The protesters were divided into columns to make detentions easier - they were sent to the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center, where Navalny is being held. Despite the threats from the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications to take measures in the event of an alleged overestimation of the number of participants in the shares, it was difficult to give an exact number.

St. Petersburg was no stranger to the harsh scenario of interaction between law enforcement officers and protesters. A number of media outlets point to the use of tear gas by the police in the area of ​​Sennaya Square and other special equipment. The use of truncheons by Rosgvardia officers also came as no surprise.

Sociologists pay attention to the fact that the actions in defense of Navalny turned into a manifestation of popular protest against the infringement of the civil rights and freedoms.

In particular, it is reported about a record number of journalists who were subjected to police violence while doing their work.

According to information from the various sources, about fifty (from 30 to 80 people) representatives of media, including journalists, cameramen and photographers, were detained. For example, photographer Georgy Markov from St. Petersburg was beaten during his arrest. One of the representatives of the Novosibirsk media was hit with a truncheon. Special vests and badges did not help the reporters to calmly carry out their work.

Experts draw attention to the fact that, unlike many previous actions, during which the state's main attention was focused exclusively on the capital region, this time, the largest cities of the Ural and Siberia showed high activity. Regional mass media report a record number of participants from Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk.