On Moscow’s streets, protesters return to back jailed opposition leader Navalny

MOSCOW — Protesters chanted, “Russia without Putin,” in Moscow as thousands of people came onto the streets as part of a nationwide show of support for jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Wednesday’s rallies marked the first time since February that Navalny’s allies have staged marches to call on President Vladimir Putin’s government to free Navalny, who has been on a hunger strike to demand better medical services behind bars. At least 1,500 people were detained by Russian authorities, according to the rights monitoring group OVD-Info.

Navalny, Putin’s harshest critic, was poisoned during a trip to Siberia in August and then, after recovering in Germany for five months, was arrested immediately upon his return to Moscow in January.

Protests began in Russia’s Far East and then moved across the country, coinciding with an address by Putin in which he warned Western nations and others that they would “regret” any attempts to interfere in Moscow’s affairs. President Biden and other Western leaders have criticized Putin’s widening crackdowns on the opposition, including the jailing of Navalny.