Russian protesters denounce Putin's inauguration: 'Down with the tsar!'

Opposition supporters attend an unauthorized anti-Putin rally called by opposition leader Alexei Navalny on May 5, 2018 in Saint Petersburg.

(Image credit: Olga Maltseva/Getty Images)

Thousands of demonstrators turned out to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming inauguration in Moscow on Saturday. Gathering in Pushkin Square at the city center, they were met by police in riot gear who promptly arrested opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The Russian president faced seven challengers in his March re-election campaign; he won his fourth term with 77 percent of the vote. Navalny, widely considered Putin's most viable electoral challenger, was banned from the ballot.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.