What do the Navalny protests mean for Vladimir Putin?

Tens of thousands of young Russians march in fresh demonstrations in support of the anti-Kremlin activist

Riot police detain a man during a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny
(Image credit: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)

More than 5,100 people were arrested in Russia yesterday as protesters hit the streets across the country to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.