Moscow: Supporters of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny plan to hold candle-lit gatherings in residential courtyards across Russia on Sunday despite warnings that they could be arrested.
Navalny’s allies have declared a moratorium on street rallies until the spring after police detained thousands of people at protests in the past few weeks against the opposition politician’s arrest and imprisonment.
But they want Russians to show solidarity with Navalny by gathering outside their homes for 15 minutes on Valentine’s Day evening, shining their mobile phone torches and arranging candles in the shape of a heart.
“(President Vladimir) Putin is fear. Navalny is love. That’s why we will win,” Leonid Volkov, one of Navalny’s close allies, wrote on Twitter when calling on people to gather.
Navalny was arrested last month on his return from Germany following treatment for poisoning, in Siberia, with what many Western countries say was a nerve agent. He was jailed on…