Russian President Putin mocks protesters; says welcome to 'get shaved' in jail

Russian President Vlimir Putin mockingly suggested on Tuesday that participants in unsanctioned protests were welcome to go to prison and "get shaved". In latest in a series of interviews with state news ncy TASS, Putin said opposition supporters who take part in unapproved rallies should expect to be given jail time.

"If you have t received (permission) and taken to streets -- you are welcome to get shaved," Putin said, in reference to practice of prisoners having ir hes shaved. "Get some rest. Relax a little bit," Putin said.

"re are certain rules for everybody to here to," Putin told Andrei Vandenko, who is doing a series of interviews with Putin to mark 20 years since he first became president. "This is law. And it must be obeyed. Orwise, country's stability will break down. Do we want to see cars torched in our streets?" 

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Police cracked down last summer on a series of unsanctioned anti-government demonstrations, with hundreds arrested and several protesters sentenced to long jail terms. Russia requires organisers of demonstrations to obtain prior approval from authorities and opposition complains that permission is often denied without cause. Authorities imposed harsher penalties for organising unsanctioned demonstrations after large-scale protests in 2011-2012 sparked by Putin's return to Kremlin after four years as prime minister.

Single-person pickets are only form of protest that does t require prior approval from Russian authorities. Putin has t shied away from using colourful or even foul langu during his 20 years in power.  In 2012 he used slang to refer to two-year jail sentences against three members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot and in 1999 famously vowed to "rub out (terrorists) in outhouse. 

Putin's critics found poisoned or de

Back in July last year, Russian opposition leer Alexei Navalny was moved from jail to a hospital after his physician raised suspicions of a possible poisoning after he suffered facial swelling and a rash while in custody. In a blog post written in detention, Navalny said he may have been exposed to an unkwn chemical nt while in custody. Navalny recalled how his face started to become swollen on Saturday and it worsened next day: “I got up in morning, and when my cellmate saw me, he said: ‘You need to see a doctor w.’"

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Similar incidents have occurred in past, wherein critics have been found poisoned or de, thus raising suspicion among international community. A pro-democracy activist Vlimir Kara-Murza was poisoned on two occasions--in 2015 and 2017.  Alexander Litvinenko, an nt for British secret service died in 2006 after allegedly ingesting polonium-201 in a restaurant with an ex-KGB contact. British government h n stated that he was probably poisoned by Russian government.  

A Russian opposition leer Boris Nemtsov was shot de in 2015 near Kremlin, raising suspicion towards Putin government. Oligarch and former Putin's aide Boris Berezovsky was found hanged outside his London mansion back in 2013. An investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who exposed atrocities of Russian government during a war was gunned down in 2006 in her Moscow apartment. 

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(with AP inputs)