Russian police arrested more than 2,000 protesters on Saturday who took to the streets despite freezing temperatures as low as -50 C (-58 F) to demand the release of the government's main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.
Demonstrations demanding his release took place in at least 90 cities across the country, some of which drew thousands of people.
[Tension between Russia and the West increases due to the arrest of opponent Alexei Navalny]
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent and long-standing critic, was arrested on January 17 as soon as he returned to Moscow from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from severe poisoning with a nerve agent that he blames on the Kremlin.
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Russian authorities alleged that he was detained because his stay in Germany violated the terms of the suspended sentence in a criminal case that Navalny describes as illegitimate.
In Moscow, thousands of people packed the central Pushkin Square, where clashes with the police broke out.
Riot police and helmets dragged protesters roughly onto police buses and detention trucks.
Others were beaten with batons.
Navalny's wife, Yulia, was among those arrested.
The images even showed minors being violently arrested.
In the end, the police expelled the protesters from the square.
Then thousands of people regrouped along a wide boulevard about one kilometer (half a mile) away, many of them throwing snowballs at police.
The protests spread across the vast territory of Russia, from the island city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in northern Japan, and the Siberian city of Yakutsk, in eastern Siberia, where temperatures dropped to -50 Cº, to the cities most populous European countries in Russia.
People confront police during a protest against the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. AP
The range showed how Navalny and his anti-corruption campaign have built an extensive network of support despite official government repression and being routinely ignored by state media.
The OVD-Info group, which monitors political arrests, said that 725 people were detained in Moscow on Saturday and more than 300 in another large demonstration in St. Petersburg.
In all, it said 2,1313 people had been arrested in about 90 cities.
The 44-year-old activist is well known nationally for his allegations of corruption, claiming that it has flourished under President Putin's government.
Police detain a young man during a protest against the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, January 23, 2021.
Navalny supporters called protests again next weekend.
Navalny was arrested a few days ago when he arrived in Moscow, at Sheremetyevo airport.
He was returning from Berlin after recovering from the poisoning he suffered last August and for which the Kremlin is singled out.
Navalny's arrest adds further strain on relations between Moscow and the West, which worsened after his poisoning.
Demonstration in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on January 23, 2021. REUTERS / Anton Vaganov
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and senior officials from other nations of the European Union demanded the release of the opposition leader Russian.
The National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, appointed by President-elect Joe Biden, also spoke: "Mr. Navalny must be released immediately and the perpetrators of the scandalous attempt on his life must be held accountable."
With information from AP.