Russian opposition leader held during anti-voting protest

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. file pic

Russian police wrestled opposition leader Alexei Navalny into a patrol wagon on Sunday, moments after he appeared at a rally to urge voters to boycott what he said would be a rigged presidential election in March. Video footage posted on social media showed Navalny appear on Moscow's main thoroughfare, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Kremlin, to join several hundred supporters taking part in the protest, which the authorities had said was illegal.

He had only walked a short distance when he was surrounded by helmet-clad police officers. They wrestled him to the ground on the pavement, and then dragged him feet first into the patrol wagon, the video footage showed. Navalny's personal Twitter feed carried a post to his followers saying he had been arrested. "That does not matter. Come to Tverskaya. You're not coming out for me, but for your future," the post said.

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