Navalny supporters are protesting in Russia for the release of the opposition politician.
Numerous people have already been arrested.
Meanwhile, Russia criticizes the US embassy in Moscow.
Moscow - When the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returned to Russia after a month-long stay, he was immediately arrested.
Now he is to serve a 30-day prison sentence after a controversial urgent procedure.
But resistance is forming against it.
Inside and outside the country.
Russia has
refused to
interfere from abroad
because of the protests for the
release of the detained Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny *
.
The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the US embassy in Moscow in a statement, which had listed several demonstrations planned for Saturday with exact meeting points and times.
Under the guise of concerns about the safety of US citizens abroad, Washington wants to fuel the protests in Russia, criticized Moscow.
Navalny's supporters
have called for protests in more than 90 Russian cities this Saturday.
They are demanding the release of Putin's opponent, who was sentenced to 30 days in prison on Monday in a controversial urgent procedure.
He is said to have violated reporting requirements in previous criminal proceedings while he was recovering from a poison attack in Germany.
Navalny and his team see the judiciary's actions as politically motivated.
Navalny protests in Russia: Kremlin critics sentenced to imprisonment - already 125 arrests in counter-demos
By Saturday afternoon Moscow time, the
civil rights organization OWD had already
counted
125 arrests
in cities where the protests were scheduled several hours earlier than in the capital due to the time difference.
In many places, however, the police did not intervene, as can be seen on videos on social networks.
In the Siberian city of Tomsk, where Navalny was the
victim of an attack with the neurotoxin Novichok
in August
, people are said to have gathered for the largest unauthorized demonstration in years.
Navalny makes
Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin *
and the FSB for the assassination responsible.
Putin and the FSB reject that.
Navalny's supporters spoke of thousands of demonstrators in Khabarovsk, Irkutsk and Novosibirsk.
The crowd chanted "We have the power" and "Putin is a thief".
At the beginning of the week, Nawalny's team published a highly acclaimed unveiling video entitled “A Palace for Putin”, which is supposed to prove that the president had a “tsarist empire” built on the Black Sea from bribes.
The
Kremlin describes the allegations as a "lie"
.
The authorities are threatening heavy fines for participating in the unauthorized rallies.
Numerous supporters of the opposition politician had already been arrested in the past few days.
(dpa)