MOSCOW – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s allies on Tuesday called for a massive protest across the country to demand his release from prison.
In a statement posted on Navalny’s website, they urged Russians to sign up for a protest on an interactive map and said they will set a date for it when the number of people willing to take part reaches at least 500,000 nationwide.
The organizers claimed in a YouTube statement that the rally would the biggest that Russia has seen.
They set up a dedicated website for the protest, inviting those willing to take part to register on the interactive map. Just several hours after it opened, more than 100,000 people had signed up.
Ivan Zhdanov, the head of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said in an interview with the independent Dozhd TV that all personal data of people registering on the website will be reliably protected.
Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff who has lived abroad since 2019, said that when enough people have signed up “we will choose a convenient date and stage a peaceful march in all Russian cities.”
“Our main enemy is indifference, apathy, being apolitical,” said another top Navalny associate, Maria Pevchickh. “No one will give us freedom as a gift, it can’t be bought. We must fight for it.”
The 44-year-old Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken opponent, was arrested on Jan. 17 upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.
