Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been reportedly detained by authorities as protesters — engaged in a day of nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations — braced for clashes in Moscow on Monday.
Navalny’s wife, Yulia, reported news of his detention at his home in Moscow on his official Twitter feed. She also posted a picture showing police officers at the scene.
Meanwhile Navalny’s YouTube channel, which had been broadcasting live to more than 50,000 people as protests across Russia got underway, lost light and sound in the studio.
Hours earlier, authorities declared that a planned rally in the Russian capital was illegal.
“We warn that any attempts to hold an illegal event on the Tverskaya Street, Moscow is a direct violation of the law,” the Prosecutor General said in a statement.
“Law enforcement agencies will be forced to take all necessary measures to stop provocations, mass unrest or any actions leading to a violation of public security, creating conditions for threatening the life and health of citizens.”
The Moscow rally is one of nearly 200 planned for towns and cities to mark the Russia Day public holiday. Campaigners had hoped more than 10,000 people would attend in St. Petersburg and in Moscow.
Navalny — — who plans to run against Vladamir Putin in next year’s presidential election — said earlier they would go ahead regardless of whether the government allowed them or not. He planned to attend the Moscow protest.
However, in the Twitter message posted on his behalf, his wife wrote: “Happy Russia’s day to everyone. Alexey was detained in his house. He asked to tell you that plans remain the same: Tverskaya.”
This was a reference to the main thoroughfare in central Moscow, near the Kremlin, where the protest was getting underway Monday afternoon.
Navalny, 41, has been mobilizing support on social networks, and hopes the rallies will rattle the Kremlin, as those held earlier this year did.
In March, thousands joined protests in almost 100 cities across Russia, angered by a report Navalny published accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption. Navalny was arrested, along with hundreds of others, and was jailed for 15 days after being convicted of disobeying a police officer.
His election campaign comes despite him being convicted of embezzlement and given a suspended sentence in February.
Russian laws prohibit convicted people from running for office. Navalny says the charges against him are politically motivated.