Kremlin Opponent Navalny Is Briefly Detained for Organizing Protests

MOSCOW — A prominent Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, said he was briefly detained by police Thursday as authorities initiated legal proceedings against him for organizing illegal protests.

The legal maneuvering was widely interpreted as a precautionary measure, intended to ensure that Navalny could be safely tucked away, if need be, in the prelude to the Russian presidential election March 18.

The charge, which will be heard by a court at an undisclosed date, could result in a jail sentence of up to 30 days. Earlier, Navalny had predicted that he was likely to be jailed for the period around the election.

Navalny is barred from running in the election because of a criminal conviction that he and most rights advocates say was fabricated. Instead, he is leading a campaign to boycott the vote, trying to keep the turnout down and deny President Vladimir Putin the sweeping victory he seeks.

Navalny said on Twitter that he had been detained by seven police officers as he left a dental clinic and that he had been released after being informed of the proceedings against him.

“They offered me a lift to wherever I wanted, but I declined and went back to work,” Navalny wrote in another post. “I don’t understand what happened and why seven people detained me.”

Over the past decade, Navalny, 41, became Russia’s pre-eminent opposition figure by exposing corruption and the lavish lifestyles of members of Putin’s inner circle. In 2017, he led a nationwide grass-roots presidential campaign that included protest rallies in many traditionally pro-Kremlin Russian cities.

At the end of January, Navalny organized a series of rallies attended by thousands to protest the Kremlin in subzero temperatures. Navalny also organized large-scale protests in June and in March, but he could not fully take part in them because police detained him each time.

Separately, Navalny’s campaign chief, Leonid Volkov, was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow on Thursday. A court sentenced him to 30 days of administrative arrest, a period covering election day, on a charge of violating the rules governing public demonstrations.

And on Tuesday, Roman Rubanov, the head of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, was placed under 10-day administrative arrest on the charge of organizing an unsanctioned rally.