On April 21, rallies of solidarity with Alexei Navalny were held across the country, as he is now behind bars in a very serious condition. Together with ordinary citizens, Vladi from the group „Casta”, Ivan Dremin (Face), Oksimiron, Noize MC also took part in the protest actions.
There were also numerous detentions. According to the Department of Internal Affairs, at the last count, more than 1,400 people were detained throughout the country. The detentions began in the morning of April 21. Firstly, they detained Lyubov Sobol, and later Kira Yarmysh. Also, in several offices of Navalny’s headquarters, the lights were turned off several times for several minutes, which interrupted the live broadcasts from the rallies.
Most of the detained protesters are in St. Petersburg — 350 people. More than 20 people were detained in Moscow.
Navalny’s associates estimate the total number of people who took to the streets in Moscow and St. Petersburg at 100 thousand people.
In most Russian cities, people were shouting:
“We are the power here!”, “Freedom for political prisoners!”, “Freedom to Navalny!”.
Some citizens came out with posters.
On the day of the rally, metro stations were closed in many cities. For example, in Yekaterinburg, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the central station “1905 Goda Street” was closed, and in Moscow — the exit from the metro and the underground passage to Manezhnaya Square, as well as the passage to Lubyanka. In St. Petersburg, the Palace Square and the Hermitage were closed and fenced off.
What the outcome of the past day will lead to is still unknown, but we need to follow the further development of events.
