Moscow police clash with Navalny supporters as tens of thousands rally

Police clashed violently with protesters in Moscow and arrested more than 2,500 demonstrators in cities across the country Saturday as Russians took to the streets to denounce Kremlin rule and demand the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Tens of thousands nationwide answered Navalny’s call to rally, issued after he was detained at a Moscow airport on arrival from Germany, where he had been recovering from a near-fatal poisoning with a nerve agent.

Washington and Brussels condemned the arrests and other tactics used against demonstrators, with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying the bloc would discuss “next steps” on Monday.

Saturday’s protests took on an unprecedented geographic scale, spanning more than 100 cities across the country. Previous large-scale opposition demonstrations in 2012 and 2019 were largely centralised in Moscow.