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A protester is taken away during the mass protests against the arrest of Alexei Navalny last weekend
Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / dpa
Shortly before the planned new protests in Russia, the brother of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was sentenced to two months of house arrest.
A Moscow court ruled on Friday evening that Oleg Navalny was no longer allowed to move freely or use the telephone or the Internet until March 23.
The penalty was imposed in connection with violations of corona hygiene requirements at the mass protests last weekend, which Oleg Navalny is also said to have called for.
According to the news agencies AP and Reuters, Navalny's ally Lyubov Sobol was also placed under house arrest, as were other members of Navalny's team, including his office manager Oleg Stepanov and Maria Alekhina from the Russian band Pussy Riot.
Accordingly, they all have no access to the Internet until March 23.
The police had already searched the apartments of activists close to Navalny in the past few days and arrested several for allegedly violating corona requirements.
Further protests are planned for Sunday
The previous day, another court upheld Navalny's 30-day prison term.
The opposition was arrested at the airport almost two weeks ago immediately after his return to Russia for allegedly violating reporting requirements in previous criminal proceedings while he was recovering from a poison attack in Germany.
Next Tuesday, a court will decide whether an old suspended sentence will be converted into real detention.
He faces many years in prison.
Since the mass protests last weekend, the authorities had massively increased the pressure on Nawalny's team.
Security forces searched numerous offices and private homes on Wednesday.
Protests are again planned for the coming Sunday in around 80 Russian cities.
The authorities warned against participating in the unauthorized actions.
According to the agencies, the public prosecutor's office demanded the blockade of Internet sites calling for the unauthorized rallies.
In connection with the previous protests, fines were imposed on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, among others.
Around 4,000 people arrested during past protests, according to civil rights activists
According to the organizers, up to 300,000 people demonstrated for the release of Nawalny last Saturday.
According to civil rights activists, around 4,000 people had been arrested.
In the capital Moscow alone, the authorities subsequently opened more than 1,600 criminal proceedings against participants.
The protests were fueled by a recent unveiling video from Nawalny's team.
The film »A Palace for Putin«, which has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube, attributes a »tsarist empire« on the Black Sea to Russian President Vladimir Putin, financed by bribes.
The Kremlin rejected that.
On Friday, state television showed a report that a hotel is to be housed in the huge property currently under construction in a few years
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höh / AP / Reuters / dpa
