we begin in russia where over 3 000
people have been arrested during
a second week of nationwide protests in
support of opposition figure alexei
navalny
the greatest number of detentions so far
have been reported in the capital moscow
where many demonstrators gathered near
the prison where navalny is being held
but protests have been taking place
across many time zones this sunday
from siberia in the east to saint
peter's saint petersburg in the west
navalny was arrested earlier this month
on his return to russia from germany
where he spent five months recovering
from an attempt to kill him
with a nerve agent
a week two of the oppositions challenged
to vladimir putin
thousands have gathered again in the
center of saint petersburg
they are again demonstrating for the
release of opposition politician
alexei navalny ahead of the protest
the authorities cordent of many areas of
the
city center for many people here this
is the first time they have ever
attended a protest
until recently they didn't care about
alexey navalny
but his arrest at a moscow airport on
return from germany
outraged many russians and many are also
here to demonstrate against corruption
perceived police violence and a lack of
democracy in russia
they showed up even though organizers
didn't receive a permit for the protests
from the authorities
firstly our elites our authorities are
deeply lying
secondly i'm against corruption and
thirdly i'm against
political prisoners in our country
people who tell the truth in russia
should be free
i'm not here so much because of
navalny's support
not because of the immediate change of
government i'm here fighting to ensure
that we are not
deceived in the run-up to the
demonstrations
police across the country attempt to
intimidate
activists and journalists some were even
arrested
libor sobol was one of them
she is the second most famous face of
the russian opposition
after navalny sobel is a member of
navalny's ngo the anti-corruption
foundation
which published a now famous video
nearly two weeks ago
in it navalny exposes a palace
allegedly belonging to president putin
according to the opposition politician
it was built with
money from corruption navalny's video
already has
more than 100 million hits even russian
state
television has been forced to address
his allegations
[Applause]
they are claiming the building doesn't
really belong to putin
instead they say it's a hotel which is
still under
construction and that it's owned by one
of russia's richest businessman arkady
rothenberg
the time for the kremlin is up i feel
that the kremlin's policies
don't reflect reality
like a week ago the police are cracking
down on this demonstration
once again many people are being
arrested here in saint petersburg and in
other cities throughout russia
it's a display of force from a state
determined to end these protests
well for the latest from the russian
capital we're joined by dw correspondent
emily sherwin hi emily
now you've been following the protests
uh all day what is the situation right
now like in moscow
well the protests have now officially
ended according to alexey navain's team
but much of what we saw today was pretty
unprecedented first of all the
authorities
closed off a huge chunk of the city
today the city center
seven several metro stations initially
seven and then later on
several more were closed across the city
buses were redirected roads were blocked
off by police there was a huge police
presence
and that sort of closure of part of the
city
was really much wider what much broader
than we've seen in the past
and the other thing was that what
resulted from that
closure was kind of a cat and mouse game
between protesters
and police the team of alexey navain was
actually coordinating protesters
and the movement of protesters on the
social media platform telegram
they were writing to protesters where to
go
next whenever one meeting place became
unavailable or there were loads of
arrests happening there
they would move somewhere else and at
one point we saw
just how big the crowd was as they were
moving back towards the center
really it seemed hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of people
were marching towards us peacefully
marching towards the center despite the
fact that they risked
um being arrested today in the capital
well you just said it there
despite the fact that there was of
course this risk of of being arrested
and we've already
seen some of the figures that uh it's
into the thousands of arrests
why is it that people haven't stopped
going out
i think everyone who came to this
protest today and also the protest last
week knew that
it wasn't authorized uh by the
authorities here
they knew that uh there had been last
week
you know there was a pretty uh big
crackdown on the opposition here already
so everyone knew the risk that they were
taking
many of the people that i spoke to today
said that alexei navaini was not the
actual reason that they came
out in a way he was he was more of a
catalyst for them so yes they were
calling for his release
but in a way he's become kind of a sig a
symbol
of the fact that there isn't as they say
here as the protesters say a rule of law
um in russia
many people i spoke to said they're just
fed up with the corruption
in the ruling elite here and they want a
better life they were complaining about
the economic conditions as well
um and kind of uh pushing for for
something better for a better future
emily sherwin in moscow thanks for that
update
you