The Latest: Russia's Navalny reported in satisfactory health

By Associated Press 29 July 2019, 12:00AM

MOSCOW (AP) — The Latest on opposition protests in Russia (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

A spokeswoman says Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in satisfactory condition after being hospitalized for a severe allergy attack while in jail.

Navalny was taken to a hospital Sunday morning from the Moscow detention facility where he is serving a 30-day sentence for calling an unsanctioned protest against the exclusion from the ballot of independent Moscow City Council candidates.

His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh had said Navalny did not have a history of allergies and arrived at the hospital with severe facial swelling and red skin rashes.

Yarmysh said he was in "satisfactory condition" on Sunday afternoon.

Navalny ally Leonid Volkov tweeted on Sunday about what he described as "anti-sanitary conditions" at the jail.

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1:45 p.m.

The spokeswoman for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he has been hospitalized with a severe allergy attack while in detention.

Kira Yarmysh said Sunday that Navalny, who was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail for calling for Saturday's unsanctioned protest, was taken from the Moscow detention facility to a hospital in the morning.

Yarmysh said Navalny, who did not have any allergies before, arrived at the hospital with severe facial swelling and red rashes on his skin.

Navalny galvanized the anti-government protesters who rallied all day Saturday against the exclusion of independent candidates from the Sept. 8 ballot for the Moscow city council.

A Russian group that monitors police arrests said Sunday that nearly 1,400 people were detained in a police crackdown on Saturday's protest, the largest number of detentions at a rally in the Russian capital this decade.

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12:50 p.m.

A Russian group that monitors police arrests said on Sunday that nearly 1,400 people were detained in a police crackdown on an opposition protest in Moscow, the largest number of detentions at a rally in the Russian capital this decade.

OVD-Info, which has monitored the arrests since 2011, said the number of the detentions it logged for Saturday's protest reached 1,373 by early Sunday. The overwhelming majority of people was soon released but 150 people remain in custody, OVD-Info and a lawyers' association providing legal aid to the detainees said on Sunday.

Russian police violently dispersed thousands of people who thronged Moscow streets on Saturday to protest election authorities for disqualifying independent candidates from the Sept. 8 election for the Moscow city council.

Several protesters reported broken limbs and head injuries. Police justified their response by saying the rally was not sanctioned by authorities. Along with the arrests of the mostly young demonstrators, several opposition activists who wanted to run for the Moscow City Duma were arrested throughout the city before the protest. They were released later in the day only to be arrested again in the evening.

Police eventually cordoned off the City Hall and dispersed protesters from the area, but thousands of demonstrators reassembled in several different locations nearby where new arrests began, with police beating some to the ground with wide truncheon swings while other demonstrators tried to push them away.

Police numbered the protests at 3,500 but areal footage from several locations where were people were rallying simultaneously suggests at least 8,000.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Sunday decried the violent crackdown as "use of disproportionate police force."

The Russian presidential human rights council said on Sunday that it was concerned about the police brutality.

By Associated Press 29 July 2019, 12:00AM

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