Russia slams West's reaction to protests as 'double-standards'
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov slammed the Western countries reaction to protests in Moscow and other cities across Russia over the weekend as double standards.
"When events of the same level provoke different reaction all we can think of in this regard is infamous double standard," Lavrov said, as reported by Russian news agency TASS. "I cannot remember, when somebody expressed a strong and public reaction regarding the decisions, recently made in Austria, Holland, Germany, where the authorities banned holding certain protests," Lavrov said.
Tens of thousands took to the streets across Russia in protests that were largely not authorized by authorities. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Kremlin respects the right to protest but dismissed Sunday's demonstrations as unlawful. He lashed out at unnamed organizers for "consciously misleading people" and encouraging them to come.
The Kremlin rejected calls by the United States and the European Union to release opposition protesters detained during what it said were illegal demonstrations on Sunday and accused organizers of paying teenagers to attend.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who organized a wave of nationwide protests against government corruption that rattled authorities, was fined 20,000 rubles ($340) by a Moscow court yesterday.
Navalny had called for the protests that swept the country Sunday after he published a report earlier this month accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a property empire through a murky network of nonprofit organizations.
Russian authorities had warned Navalny and his supporters not to attend the Moscow rally - the city's largest in years - because it had not been sanctioned by the city administration. The Russian constitution allows public gatherings, but recent laws have criminalized protests unauthorized by city authorities, which frequently refuse to grant permission for rallies by Kremlin critics.
The Kremlin has dismissed the opposition as Westernized urban elite disconnected from the issues faced by the poor in Russia's far-flung regions, but Sunday's protests included demonstrations in the areas which typically produce a high vote for President Vladimir Putin, from Siberia's Chita to Dagestan's Makhachkala.
The protests were led by Navalny, an opposition leader who has recently announced his bid for presidency. Navalny was grabbed by police while walking to the rally from a nearby subway station. He posted a selfie on Twitter from the courtroom on Monday morning, saying: "A time will come when we'll put them on trial too - and that time it will be fair." If found guilty, he could be jailed for 15 days for staging an unauthorized rally.
The 40-year old Navalny, arguably Russia's most popular opposition leader, has been twice convicted on fraud and embezzlement charges that he has dismissed as politically motivated. Navalny is currently serving a suspended sentence, and Sunday's arrest could be used as a pretext to convert it into jail time.
Separately, police arrested 17 associates of Navalny's who were at their office, setting up and monitoring a webcast of the rally. All of them spent the night at the police station while authorities raided their office, reportedly taking out all equipment. It wasn't immediately clear what charges they may be facing.
"When events of the same level provoke different reaction all we can think of in this regard is infamous double standard," Lavrov said, as reported by Russian news agency TASS. "I cannot remember, when somebody expressed a strong and public reaction regarding the decisions, recently made in Austria, Holland, Germany, where the authorities banned holding certain protests," Lavrov said.
Tens of thousands took to the streets across Russia in protests that were largely not authorized by authorities. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Kremlin respects the right to protest but dismissed Sunday's demonstrations as unlawful. He lashed out at unnamed organizers for "consciously misleading people" and encouraging them to come.
The Kremlin rejected calls by the United States and the European Union to release opposition protesters detained during what it said were illegal demonstrations on Sunday and accused organizers of paying teenagers to attend.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who organized a wave of nationwide protests against government corruption that rattled authorities, was fined 20,000 rubles ($340) by a Moscow court yesterday.
Navalny had called for the protests that swept the country Sunday after he published a report earlier this month accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a property empire through a murky network of nonprofit organizations.
Russian authorities had warned Navalny and his supporters not to attend the Moscow rally - the city's largest in years - because it had not been sanctioned by the city administration. The Russian constitution allows public gatherings, but recent laws have criminalized protests unauthorized by city authorities, which frequently refuse to grant permission for rallies by Kremlin critics.
The Kremlin has dismissed the opposition as Westernized urban elite disconnected from the issues faced by the poor in Russia's far-flung regions, but Sunday's protests included demonstrations in the areas which typically produce a high vote for President Vladimir Putin, from Siberia's Chita to Dagestan's Makhachkala.
The protests were led by Navalny, an opposition leader who has recently announced his bid for presidency. Navalny was grabbed by police while walking to the rally from a nearby subway station. He posted a selfie on Twitter from the courtroom on Monday morning, saying: "A time will come when we'll put them on trial too - and that time it will be fair." If found guilty, he could be jailed for 15 days for staging an unauthorized rally.
The 40-year old Navalny, arguably Russia's most popular opposition leader, has been twice convicted on fraud and embezzlement charges that he has dismissed as politically motivated. Navalny is currently serving a suspended sentence, and Sunday's arrest could be used as a pretext to convert it into jail time.
Separately, police arrested 17 associates of Navalny's who were at their office, setting up and monitoring a webcast of the rally. All of them spent the night at the police station while authorities raided their office, reportedly taking out all equipment. It wasn't immediately clear what charges they may be facing.