the outspoken kremlin critic alexey
navalny
has denounced his continued detention
calling it demonstratively
illegal after his appeal to be freed
from jail was rejected by a judge in
moscow
mr navalny was detained 10 days ago
accused of failing to comply with a
suspended sentence
tens of thousands of russians took to
the streets at the weekend
in support of mr navalny who says he was
the target of an assassination attempt
last august
steve rosenberg reports
from inside jail via video link the
kremlin's most ferocious critic
demanded his freedom
alex told the court his arrest was
illegal
an attempt to scare him and his
supporters it wouldn't work he added
we are the majority the judge dismissed
his appeal
more pressure police raiding mr levine's
anti-corruption organization
it had posted this video of mr levine
accusing vladimir putin
of building himself a billion pound
palace with illicit money
the kremlins denied it but the videos
had nearly a hundred million views
in a week palaces and political battles
what are russians making of all of this
outside moscow
tv is a hundred miles away
last weekend there were protests here
and across russia
in support of mr navini
police broke them up among those
detained was
pavel it was the first time he'd taken
part in a protest
a lot of people pavel says have watched
that video about the palace
and believe it we did nothing wrong
we were protesting peacefully
[Music]
protest sentiment was already on the
rise here
an economic slowdown made worse by the
pandemic
has hit russians hard and shaken
people's faith
in their president
putin's not the leader he was says
prices in the shops keep rising he must
have something to do with this
the president's losing popularity says
this won't end well for him you could
put a political opponent
behind bars one thing you cannot do
though is lock away
put out of sight the public mood and the
kremlin's problem is that
with the economy here in difficulty
russians feel that life is getting
tougher
and that means growing dissatisfaction
with the authorities
but the kremlin has this warning illegal
protest
brings chaos the last thing russia needs
it says is another russian revolution
steve rosenberg bbc news tv