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. The protests were timed
to coincide with the 65th birthday of President Vladimir V. Putin.
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.
But
their geographical reach confirmed the anti-corruption campaigner as
Mr. Putin’s best organized and most determined political foe.
In
Moscow, torrential rain, a heavy police presence and fears of a harsh
crackdown dampened the fervor of Mr. Navalny’s supporters, with only a
few hundred people gathering in Pushkin Square in the center of the city
to chant slogans against Mr. Putin and the corruption that has become
an endemic feature of his increasingly authoritarian rule. In
comparison, thousands had gathered in Moscow and other cities in the earlier days of protest Mr. Navalny, 41, had organized.
“Happy
birthday Putin and goodbye,” youthful protesters chanted, mocking the
Kremlin leader who if, as expected, wins a presidential election next
year, will be over 70 when his term ends.
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.
Nonetheless,
the crackdown seems to have been severe in some towns, particularly St.
Petersburg, where at least 66 people were arrested, and photographs posted on social media showed protesters splattered with blood after their arrests.
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Mr. Navalny was absent from Saturday’s protests, having been sentenced
earlier in the week to 20 days in prison for organizing unsanctioned
rallies. The sentence appeared to be an attempt to halt Mr. Navalny’s
efforts to organize protests in St. Petersburg on Saturday.
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.
“Navalny is our president,” protesters shouted in Moscow. “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.
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.
Russia’s
Central Election Commission has said that Mr. Navalny cannot legally
run for president because of a prior criminal conviction for
embezzlement in the theft of timber from a state company. Mr. Navalny
has dismissed the embezzlement case as a trumped up political dispute.
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