Putin labels pro-Navalny rallies dangerous, illegal

Russian President Vladimir Putin blasted the large-scale demonstrations held in the country over the weekend in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, accusing participants of defying the law.

“Everyone has the right to express their point of view within the framework provided by the law. Anything outside the law is not just counter-productive, but dangerous,” the president said in a message to students Monday, without mentioning Navalny by name, according to Reuters. He went on to say the protests could cause upheavals similar to the 1917 Russian Revolution or the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Police arrested thousands of people at the weekend protests that were believed to have drawn hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. Navalny ally Leonid Volkov has said similar demonstrations are expected next weekend.

Although Putin did not name Navalny in Monday’s remarks, he made a rare acknowledgment of one of the opposition leader’s accusations against him. The Russian president referenced a video in which Navalny accuses Putin of owning a palace on the Black Sea paid for by friends, partially using public money.

“Nothing of what was indicated there as my property belongs either to me or to my relatives and never has belonged [to us]. Never,” Putin said.

Navanly was hospitalized and eventually transferred to a facility in Germany after becoming ill on a flight to Siberia last year. In the hospital, doctors said he had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Upon being discharged from the hospital, Russia’s prison bureau told Navalny that if he did not return to Russia immediately he would be in violation of the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence. Navalny flew back to Moscow earlier this month and was arrested at the airport.

The Kremlin has pushed back on international support for the protesters. The nation’s ministry of foreign affairs said Monday it has issued a diplomatic protest to U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan after the U.S. Embassy in Moscow tweeted its support.