MOSCOW (AP) – Moscow police arrested about 200 people who participated on Saturday in a forum of independent members of city councils, an action that took place amid multidisciplinary crackdown on dissent by Russian authorities.
Police showed up at the rally shortly after it opened at a Moscow hotel, saying all those present would be arrested for taking part in an event organized by an “undesirable” organization. A police officer who led the raid said the detained individuals would be taken to the police station and charged with administrative offenses.
Moscow police said in a statement that they moved to stop the meeting because it violated coronavirus restrictions, as many participants did not wear masks. They said about 200 participants were arrested, some of them allegedly members of an unspecified “undesirable” organization.
OVD-Info, an independent group that monitors arrests and political repression, published a list of more than 180 detainees. They included Ilya Yashin, an opposition politician who heads one of Moscow’s municipal districts; the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman; and Moscow City Council member Yulia Galyamina.
Police began releasing detainees after handing them court summonses to participate in the activities of an “undesirable” organization, which is a crime punishable by a fine. It was unclear how many remained in police custody on Saturday night.
“His goal was to scare people out of politics,” said Andrei Pivovarov, a politician who helped organize the forum, in a video recorded while he was in a police van.
Pivovarov has played a leading role in Open Russia, a group funded by self-exiled Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Khodorkovsky moved to London after spending ten years in prison in Russia on charges seen as political revenge for challenging President Vladimir Putin’s government.
A 2015 law introduced criminal punishment for belonging to “undesirable” organizations. The government has used the law to ban about 30 groups, including the Open Russia.
An earlier law required non-governmental organizations that receive foreign funding and engage in activities that are rarely described as policies to register as “foreign agents”.
The laws have been widely criticized as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to quell dissent, but Russian authorities have described them as an appropriate response to alleged Western efforts to undermine the country.
Police crackdown at the forum on Saturday following the arrest and imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most determined political enemy was arrested on January 17 on his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nervous breakdown blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation.
Last month, Navalny was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating the conditions of his parole while convalescing in Germany, charges he rejected as Kremlin vendetta. His arrest and imprisonment sparked a wave of protests across Russia, to which authorities responded with massive repression.
The government has stepped up its crackdown on the opposition ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for September, as the popularity of the Kremlin-backed main party, United Russia, has waned.