Pussy Riot activist arrested after pro-Alexei Navalny protests in Moscow
Source: Guardian UK
Twenty activists including Masha Alyokhina from Pussy Riot were arrested in Moscow on Wednesday yesterday, after staging an all-night protest against the conviction of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg.
Several thousand anti-Putin demonstrators gathered in central Moscow on Tuesday after a court handed Navalny – Vladimir Putin’s most high-profile opponent – a suspended sentence, but jailed his brother for three-and-a-half years. Navalny broke a house arrest order to attend the rally and was swiftly detained. Riot police arrested more than 100 people.
A small group of activists including Alyokhina, and the anti-Putin blogger Arseny Bobrovsky, took refuge in a giant Christmas ball on Moscow’s Manezh Square, directly in front of the Kremlin. Despite freezing conditions they spent the night inside. They held up banners saying that they would “occupy the globe” until Oleg Navalny was freed.
At 8am Moscow time, the police moved in and arrested those inside[https://twitter.com/annalena08/status/550177932350869504/photo/1]. “They came from two directions, took everyone’s documents, and then literally used their arms to drag us out,” Alyokhina told the news portal Mediazona. She added: “I consider all those who came out and spent the night in the ball to be heroes. It was -20C.”
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/31/pussy-riot-activist-masha-alyokhina-arrested-alexei-navalny-protest
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