Navalny's wife among thousands held as Russian police clamp down on protests

Russian police detained Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, at an unauthorised protest in Moscow on Sunday.

She was among the thousands of people detained across Russia and blocked off the centre of Moscow on Sunday in a massive clampdown on protests demanding Navalny's release.

The OVD-Info monitor said 4,027 people had been detained on Sunday, after reporting more than 4,000 arrested at similarprotestslast weekend.

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The number of detentions on Sunday hit 1,167 in Moscow and 862 in Saint Petersburg, it said, as theprotestswere coming to a close after a day that saw thousands rally in cities across the country.

Navalnaya was also detained at a similar protest in support of her husband last week.

Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport in mid-January after flying back to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from an August poisoning he blames on the Kremlin.

The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner is being held in a Moscow detention centre and facing years of potential jail time in several different criminal cases, despite calls from Western governments for his release.

People have since protesting for Navalny's release. After rallies last week across the country, demonstrations were planned for Sunday as well.

In order to curb these protests, thousands of police in riot gear were deployed from Vladivostok in the Far East to Saint Petersburg on the Baltic Sea. In moves not seen in years in Moscow, police locked down the centre of the capital on Sunday, with hundreds lining the streets, central Metro stations closed and the movements of pedestrians restricted.

Protesters who had hoped to gather outside the headquarters of the FSB security service were instead scattered to various parts of the city as organisers made last-minute changes in locations.

Hundreds were marching through the city centre chanting "Freedom!" and "Putin is a thief!" as they headed towards the Matrosskaya Tishina prison where Navalny was being held.

Police followed the protesters, breaking up the crowds and playing pre-recorded messages on loudspeakers warning that the gathering was illegal because of coronavirus restrictions.

Earlier protesters had rallied in cities including the Pacific port of Vladivostok, where several dozen gathered in a central square despite police closing it off ahead of the rally.

Several thousand were also reported to have protested in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk despite temperatures dropping to -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Moscow condemned the arrests and blocking of the city centre in Moscow, saying in a tweet: "Russia must respect international human rights commitments."

Russian authorities issued several warnings against participating in the unauthorised rallies and threatened criminal charges against protesters.

Navalny is due in court in several cases next week, including on February 2 on charges of violating the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence.

His wife Yulia posted a picture of her family on Instagram on Sunday, urging supporters to make their voices heard.

This week several Navalny associates, including lawyer Lyubov Sobol and his brother Oleg, were placed under house arrest until late March pending charges for violating coronavirus restrictions by calling people to join protests.

Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh was detained late Saturday also over violating virus measures, the same day she was due to walk free after a nine-day jail term for violating protest laws.

Days after Navalny was taken into custody, his team released a video report alleging Putin had been gifted a $1.35 billion property on the Black Sea coast, garnering over 100 million views on YouTube.

The Kremlin has denied that the Russian president owns the opulent complex, which according to Navalny features an underground ice hockey arena, a private casino and vineyards.

Putin's former aide and billionaire businessman Arkady Rotenberg said Saturday he was the owner of the property and that he was building a hotel there.He is under Western sanctions.

(with inputs from agencies)