June 12, 2019
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian police detained opposition politician Alexei Navalny and at least 35 others at a Moscow protest calling for punishment for police officers involved in the alleged framing of a journalist, monitors and a Reuters witness said.
Police abruptly dropped drugs charges a day earlier against journalist Ivan Golunov, a rare U-turn by the authorities in the face of anger from his supporters who said he was framed for his reporting.
But his supporters decided to go ahead with a protest on Wednesday, a public holiday in Russia, despite being warned by the authorities that their demonstration would be illegal.
The OVD-Info monitoring group said at least 35 people had been detained, while a Reuters witness saw police bundle opposition politician Navalny into a truck.
(Reporting by Anton Zverev, Andrey Kuzmin and Maxim Shemetov; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe)
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