Navalny’s team is calling for protests on the anniversary of his arrest of actor Samuel Theis on suspicion of rape

Supporters of Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny have called for demonstrations around the world to mark the third anniversary of his imprisonment on January 21. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin had Navalny locked up behind the Arctic Circle to silence him. “Don’t let Putin win,” Navalny’s chief strategist Leonid Volkov, who fled abroad, wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday evening. However, demonstrations are only planned abroad – also because of the strong repression in Russia.

Demonstrations should be especially active in Germany. Ten locations are listed here: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Hannover, Saarbrücken, Ludwigshafen and Göttingen.

Navalny himself has been held in the infamous ‘Polarwelt’ prison in Siberia’s frigid Yamal region since December. There he had now been sentenced again to seven days of criminal arrest, he announced on Tuesday via his Telegram channel. The reason is that he didn’t introduce himself properly. The politician, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for alleged extremism, took this with irony. When we went outside at half past six in the morning in the polar night and at minus 32 degrees, “despite the wall, wonderful fresh air blew into the garden,” he wrote. (saw/sda/dpa)