Russians, Heeding Navalny’s Call, Mark Putin’s Birthday With Protest
7, 2017
MOSCOW — Answering a protest call issued from behind bars by the jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, small
crowds of mostly young people gathered in towns across Russia on Saturday in a wave of nationwide demonstrations.
But instead of abandoning his protest plans for Russia’s second biggest city, Mr. Navalny, in messages sent from prison, called on his supporters to take to the streets not only in
that city but in others across the country to pressure authorities to let him compete in a presidential election scheduled for March.
The turnout for the protests, which began in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East
and then rolled westward throughout the day, was considerably smaller than in two previous days of nationwide rallies called by Mr. Navalny in March and June.
Unlike an older generation of Russian opposition leaders, dominated by veteran liberals
and Soviet-era dissidents, Mr. Navalny has tapped into the concerns of Russia’s young people, using social media and other tools to expose the wealth and corruption of top level government officials in a series of popular videos.
OVD-Info, a nonprofit organization, reported that more than 260 protesters had been arrested by early Saturday
evening, a smaller number than during the previous, bigger protests organized by Mr. Navalny.
"We are the power here." Opinion polls indicate that Mr. Putin would easily defeat Mr. Navalny in a presidential election,
but the younger man’s ability to mobilize previously apathetic Russian youths, and his dogged investigation of corruption in Mr. Putin’s entourage, have clearly worried the Kremlin.
