Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, is currently serving an 11.5-year prison sentence. –
Russian opposition leader Ilya Yassin was arrested in Moscow on Monday, according to a journalist and criminologist who has represented several figures in the Russian opposition.
Irina Bablogyan, a journalist and producer at the now-closed Echo radio station in Moscow, explained that Mr. Yassin had been arrested while the two were talking while walking.
“My friend Ilias Yassin and I went for a walk in the park … The police came and took Ilias,” Ms Bablogian explained via the Telegram platform.
Lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, an occasional advocate for various forms of the Russian opposition, confirmed that Mr. Yassin had been detained for disobedience because he had disobeyed a police order.
“I was not allowed to visit the Luzhniki (Moscow) police station to see detainee Ilya Yassin,” he added via Facebook.
Reuters news agency was not able to verify this information independently. There has been no official confirmation of the arrest of the opposition by the Russian authorities.
The arrest of Yassin, 38, adds to the Kremlin’s broader, long-running campaign to defeat opponents. Alexei Navalny, the most prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is currently serving an 11.5-year prison sentence.
Since the beginning of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, thousands of people who took part in anti-war demonstrations in dozens of Russian cities have been arrested.
Ilya Yasin, a city councilor in Moscow’s Krasnaselsky district, has openly criticized the war – which the Kremlin dubbed a “special military operation” – in Ukraine.
“I remain in Russia,” Yassin said on March 7. “I have said it before and I will say it again: the Russians and the Ukrainians should not kill each other. “If my fate is to end up in prison for my anti-war speeches, I will accept it with dignity.”
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