Navalny's allies placed under house arrest
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MOSCOW • A Russian court has ordered 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 ruling on Friday is part of a crackdown targeting Mr Navalny's allies after tens of thousands joined unsanctioned protests across Russia last Saturday to demand that the Kremlin release Mr Navalny from jail.
His supporters plan to hold further protest rallies across Russia today. 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 this 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, as well as allies Lyubov Sobol, Anastasiya Vasilyeva and Oleg Stepanov were all placed under house arrest until March 23 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.
Mr Navalny's allies say they are being prosecuted to stifle their protest activity and campaigning, something the authorities deny.
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. Volkov is currently outside the country.
Mr Navalny has been detained for 30 days for parole violations that 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 Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his poisoning.
Mr Putin has denied that the authorities tried to poison him and said Russian agents would have finished the job if they had wanted him dead.
REUTERS
