Russia faces criticism after opposition politicians detained during a forum

The Russian authorities on Saturday detained about 190 politicians from all over the country for attending a forum of municipal deputies held by United Democrats. Russian police stormed the venue and arrested all the participants, who were allegedly present to discuss the municipal elections. The attendees were detained because of activities of an “undesirable organisation”. On March 13, OVD-Info that is a monitoring group that tracks the arrests of protesters and activists released a list of more than 190 people who it said were detained. 

Some of the people, who were present at the forum, posted pictures and videos of their arrest on social media platforms. In one of the videos, Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin can be seen dragged by a police officer while talking to journalists. The arrests come as Russian authorities are trying to crackdown anti-Kremlin sentiment, following the detention of opposition politician Alexei Navalny. However, as per The Associated Press report, Russian police said they pushed to stop the meeting because it violated COVID-19 restrictions. 

“Why did they disperse the forum of independent deputies? It seems to the authorities that it is demonstrating strength. In reality, all these cops running around looks just pathetic and ridiculous,” Yashin wrote on Twitter. 

Another politician named Vladimir Klara-Murza, who was present at the forum, announced on Twitter later in the evening that all the detainees have been released with an obligation to appear in the court. Murza said that "the forum has been qualified as carrying out activities of an undesirable organisation", a law that was introduced in 2015 to protect national security from foreign interference. 

International condemnation 

The international community was quick to condemn the arrest of the opposition politicians. The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to Twitter to criticise the Russian government, calling for an “end to the persecution of independent voices”. The European Council Foreign Affairs co-chair Carl Bildt dubbed the arrest as “nervousness of the regime” and said it is on a rise.