How Moscow police's attempts to shut down pro-Navalny protests may have backfired

Protest in Moscow.
(Image credit: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

Protesters in Moscow were reportedly able to take advantage of police efforts to clamp down on their demonstrations and spread their message of support for jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny further across the city than expected, The Associated Press reports.

Per AP, police closed seven subway stations in the vicinity of Lubyanka Square in central Moscow and restricted pedestrian traffic in the area where the rally was supposed to start. To counter, Navalny's team relayed information via a messaging app, telling protesters to head to two other subway stations that were still open, allowing the demonstrators to move through different parts of the city. Along the way, they reportedly attracted "considerable attention" from the city's populace, which may not have witnessed the events if they had been confined to the center of the city.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.