DHAKA: Russian police detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny in central Moscow on Sunday (March 26) at a rally which Navalny had called to protest against corruption.

Police detain Navalny on Moscow’s Tverskaya Street and put him in a police truck. Hundreds of opposition protesters crowded around the police van and tried to prevent it from taking Navalny away, reports the Irish times.

Navalny, a charismatic critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was a major driver of large street protests in 2011, 2012, 2013 and has irked the Kremlin by shining a light on corruption. 

His bid to run for president of Russia was effectively derailed in February when a Russian court revived a four-year-old criminal conviction for defrauding a state company. 

But he has continued to campaign, with his supporters saying the charges against him are politically motivated.

BDST: 2108 HRS, MAR 26, 2017
AP