A Russian court ordered on Friday that the brother and several allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny be put under house arrest while Moscow police said they would close metro stations and streets near the Kremlin ahead of planned protests.
The court rulings are part of a crackdown targeting Mr Navalny’s allies after tens of thousands of people joined unsanctioned protests across Russia last Saturday to demand that the Kremlin release him from jail.
Mr Navalny’s supporters plan to hold further protest rallies across Russia this Sunday. The authorities have said they are illegal and have vowed to break them up.
Late on Friday, Moscow police announced plans to close seven metro stations and several streets around the Kremlin early on Sunday morning “due to calls for unsanctioned gatherings”, the first move of such scale ahead of a protest in years.
The opposition politician’s brother Oleg Navalny, as well as allies Lyubov Sobol, Anastasiya Vasilyeva and Oleg Stepanov were all placed under house arrest until 23 March for calling for protests last weekend that could have posed a COVID-19 risk.
Maria Alyokhina, a member of the Pussy Riot punk band, was also put under house arrest.
Alexei Navalny's younger brother Oleg attends a bail hearing at Moscow's Tverskoy District Court. Source: Sipa USA Tverskoy District Court/TASS/Sip
Mr Navalny’s allies say they are being prosecuted to stifle their protest activity and campaigning, something the authorities deny.
Ms Sobol could be seen reading a book in court as the ruling was handed down.
Earlier on Friday, investigators declared Leonid Volkov, a close Navalny ally, a wanted man after they formally charged him in absentia with urging teenagers to take part in unsanctioned anti-Kremlin protests last weekend.
A lawyer at Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, Russian opposition activist Lyubov Sobol attends a bail hearing at Moscow's Tverskoi District Court. Source: Tverskoi District Court Press Office/Sipa USA
Mr Volkov is currently outside the country.
Alexei Navalny was detained last week for 30 days for parole violations he says have been trumped up and he could face years in jail. He was arrested this month after flying back to Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from a nerve agent poisoning last August.
Mr Navalny has accused President Vladimir Putin of ordering his poisoning.
Russian authorities insisted that the doctors who treated Mr Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison and have challenged German officials to provide proof of his poisoning.
