Aleksei Navalny Supporters Hold Rallies To Mark His Birthday In Prison

A protester outside the Russian Embassy in London on June 4, wearing a mask depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin with a sign that says, 'Guilty.' Rallies were held in Russia and around the world to mark Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny's 47th birthday and third year in prison.

Navalny supporters rally in Vilnius, Lithuania. 

Navalny is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud, contempt of court, and violating the terms of his parole, charges he says were politically motivated and designed to silence him.

 

Supporters attend a rally in Tbilisi, Georgia. 

Navalny has been in prison since February 2021, following his arrest one month earlier after he returned from Germany, where he was treated for a near-fatal poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin, which has denied any involvement.

 

Supporters at a rally in Dusseldorf, Germany.

"As always, on my birthday, I want to thank all the people I've met in my life. The good ones for having helped and still helping me. The bad ones for the fact that my experience with them has taught me something. Thanks to my family for always being there for me!" Navalny wrote on Twitter.

Omsk native Ivan Kunitsky came out with a Free Navalny poster in Sacramento, California.

Navalny is currently in punitive solitary confinement at a prison in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow.
 

Demonstrators left notes calling for the release of Russian and Belarusian political prisoners on a mock-up of Navalny's 2 x 3-meter prison cell on the Old Town Square in the Czech capital, Prague. 

A police officer detains a demonstrator with a poster that reads: "Freedom for Aleksei Navalny" in Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow.

A demonstrator smiles as she is detained in Moscow's Pushkinskaya Square.

Supporters in open defiance of Putin's crackdown on any dissent held pickets in cities throughout Russia. The protest-monitoring group, OVD-Info, reported that more than 100 people were arrested at pro-Navalny rallies in 23 Russian cities.

Police detain Navalny supporters in St. Petersburg.
 

Navalny is seen on a screen via video link during a court hearing in Moscow on April 26.

Navalny faces an additional 30 years in prison in what he terms an "absurd" new case that will begin shortly. Authorities have charged him with propagating extremism, calling for terrorism, financing extremist activity, and rehabilitating Nazism.