Russia moves to extinguish pro-Navalny protests

Russian authorities have moved vigorously to extinguish flashlight protests planned for Sunday by supporters of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. When Navalny's team urged people to come out to their residential courtyards and shine their cellphone flashlights to demand his freedom, many responded with jokes and skepticism.

After two weekends of nationwide demonstrations, the new protest format looked to some like a retreat, but not to Russia authorities. Russian officials have accused Navalny's allies of acting under NATO's instructions. Kremlin-backed TV channels warned that flashlight rallies were part of major uprisings around the world.

State news agencies cited unnamed sources saying a terrorist group was plotting attacks during unapproved mass protests. The suppression attempts represent a change of tactics by the authorities who once tried to weaken Navalny's influence by erasing him.

Kremlin-controlled TV channels previously largely ignored protests called by Navalny. Russian President Vladimir Putin has never mentioned his most prominent critic by name.

State news agencies refer to the politician and anti-corruption investigator as "a blogger" in the rare stories they run mentioning him.

Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations at Navalny's Foundations for Fighting Corruption credited Navalny's latest expose for the sudden surge in attention.

His foundation's two-hour-long video alleging that a lavish palace on the Black Sea was built for Putin through elaborate corruption has been watched over 111 million times on YouTube since it was posted on January 19.

The video went up two days after Navalny was arrested upon returning to Russia from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

The Russian government denies involvement and has said it has no evidence that Navalny was poisoned.

While the high-profile arrest and the subsequent expose were a double blow to authorities, political analyst Maria Lipman said that keeping Navalny and his activity off the airwaves to deprive him of additional publicity no longer makes sense.

The weekend protests in scores of cities last month over Navalny's detention represented the largest outpouring of popular discontent in years and appeared to have rattled the Kremlin.

Police reportedly arrested about 10,000 people, and many demonstrators were beaten, while state media sought to downplay the scale of the protests. TV channels aired footage of empty squares in cities where protests were announced and claimed that few people showed up.

Some reports portrayed police as polite and restrained, claiming officers had helped people with disabilities cross busy streets, handed out face masks to demonstrators and offered them hot tea. Once the protests died down and Navalny ally Leonid Volkov announced a pause until the spring, Kremlin-backed media reported that grassroots flash mobs titled "Putin is our president" started sweeping the country.

State news channels broadcast videos from different cities of people dancing to patriotic songs and waving Russian flags, describing them as a genuine expression of support for Putin. Several independent online outlets reported that instructions to record videos in support of Putin came from the Kremlin and the governing United Russia party, and that people featured in some of the recordings were invited to shoots under false pretenses.

The Russian president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin had nothing to do with the pro-Putin videos. After Navalny's team posted its video involving the palace allegedly built for Putin, state channel Rossiya aired its own expose of Navalny.

Anchor Dmitry Kiselev said that while working on the investigation in Germany, Navalny lived "in the luxury he so much despises."

The reporter sent to chronicle the allegedly luxurious lifestyle the politician maintained while abroad filmed inside a house Navalny rented, but failed to capture any high-end items in the two-story building, which featured several bedrooms and a small swimming pool.

She pointed to "two sofas, a TV, fresh fruit on the table" in the living room and "a kitchen with a coffee machine," and described a bedroom as "luxurious" even though it didn't look much different from a room in a business hotel.

In recent days, official media coverage has focused on plans for this weekend's flashlights-in-courtyards protest.

Reports extensively quoted Navalny ally Volkov's social media post announcing the event and accused him of acting on instructions from his Western handlers, pointing to an online conference with European officials he took part in the day before.

Image: AP