For the second consecutive weekend, Russia erupted in nationwide protest rallies on Jan. 31 local Time, with demonstrators demanding the release of jailed opposition figure Navalny from the Russian government. In response, the Kremlin deployed a large police presence.
According to protest monitor OVD-Info, as of the evening of Jan. 31, 5,017 people had been arrested in 85 cities across Russia for participating in protests, with most of the arrests occurring in Moscow (1,653) and St. Petersburg (1,159). This figure surpassed the 4,033 arrests made on January 23 and broke the previous record for the number of arrests at rallies.
Pre-arranged traffic controls, and mass arrests a week earlier, failed to prevent the protests from erupting again. In snowy Moscow, large crowds dodged checkpoints and riot police and marched toward the prison where Navalny is being held, chanting slogans such as “Free Navalny.
Footage circulated on social media showed riot police using stun guns on multiple protesters during the arrests. In St. Petersburg, one police officer pulled a pistol on the crowd after being “snowballed” by protesters.
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