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Seconds After Release From Jail, Russia Arrests Alexei Navalny Again

MOSCOW — Russia’s highest-profile opposition leader, Alexei A. Navalny, stepped out of a jail Monday after serving a 30-day sentence for organizing a protest, only to find a row of police officers waiting to arrest him again.

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By
Andrew E. Kramer
, New York Times

MOSCOW — Russia’s highest-profile opposition leader, Alexei A. Navalny, stepped out of a jail Monday after serving a 30-day sentence for organizing a protest, only to find a row of police officers waiting to arrest him again.

Navalny, a real estate lawyer turned anti-corruption activist who led a middle-class movement for political change in Moscow in 2011, has for years been subjected to multiple arrests and relatively short jail sentences.

The detentions have followed convictions on various administrative rather than criminal violations, akin to traffic tickets, mostly for organizing protests without parade permits.

The approach has allowed the Russian authorities to keep Navalny out of sight for important events like organized protests, while escaping criticism for harsh treatment that might make him a martyr.

“Alexei Navalny’s name has long been synonymous with peaceful protest and tightening restrictions on freedom of assembly in Russia,” Natalia Zviagina, director of Amnesty International in Russia, said in a statement. “He is a prisoner of conscience.”

The organization said Navalny had spent 110 days in jail since last year on six separate convictions.

A police spokesman told the Interfax news agency that Navalny had once again been detained, charged with violating a law on organizing street protests. The offense this time carries a maximum sentence of 20 days in jail.

His arrest was noteworthy for how quickly it came on the heels of his release. The Russian news media reported that Navalny was free for five seconds — the time it took him to step out of the jail door before being escorted to a waiting police van.

Orchestrating the latest arrest seconds after Navalny’s predawn release was a form of psychological pressure, Leonid Volkov, director of Navalny’s presidential campaign this year, said in a telephone interview.

“It didn’t happen this way before,” Volkov said. “He thinks he will go home to his family, but no, he is arrested again.”

Navalny, he said, has adapted to working while in detention. He is allowed one 15-minute phone call a day, which he uses to stay in touch with his anti-corruption group, the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Navalny has also studied computer programming while in jail.

Of the frequent arrests, Volkov said, “It’s sad but true that this is becoming so common that nobody pays much attention.”

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