page_title: 2017–2018 Russian protests
section_title: 26 March 2017
hierarchical_section_title: 2017–2018 Russian protests / Events / 26 March 2017
caption_attribution_description: English: The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is being detained on Tverskaya street in Moscow
context_page_description: The 2017–2018 Russian protests were a long series of countrywide street protest actions and demonstrations in the Russian Federation, with the major requirements of:
  suppressing corruption in the Russian government;
  abandoning the planned retirement age hike.
  As there is a separate article for the 2018 Russian pension protests, the information presented below is almost exclusively concerned to the anti-corruption manifestations. These were primarily led by Alexey Navalny, also eminent participants were Libertarian Party, Open Russia and Artpodgotovka. Some actions occurred due to the situative reasons although had their root in the corruption at the different levels up to the highest echelons of the Russian power.
  The protests and demonstrations against corruption in the Russian government began in March 2017 after the release of the film He Is Not Dimon to You by Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.
  By March 2017, the setting in the country was already tense.
context_section_description: On 26 March, an estimated 60,000 people took part in anti-corruption protests across 80 Russian towns and cities and hundreds of protesters have been detained, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny and employees of the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
  Twenty minutes after the start of the protests in the centre of Moscow, Alexei Navalny was detained by the police and locked inside a patrol vehicle. The protesters identified the vehicle and tried to shake it, but Navalny did not wish to be helped at the time, and urged protesters to continue their peaceful protests in the centre of the city even without him.
  According to the main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Moscow, the rally was attended by about 7–8 thousand people. However, Anti-corruption Foundation said that the streets in Moscow gathered 25–30 thousand people, with no less than 150 thousand for the whole country.
  For several hours from the start of the rally, starting at 2 PM local time, people gradually began to gather on Pushkin square. Activists hung campaign material monument in the centre of the square and threw laced sneakers on nearby trees and lampposts. Some put up posters depicting ducklings along Tverskaya Street, referencing key points in Navalny's film.
  Soon, the police started making arrests paying special attention to people hanging editions of a constitution or posters, waving flags of Russia. Alexei Navalny was arrested at 2:15 PM although he did not show any signs of protest. He invoked the people not to repel him from the police but continue walking along the Tverskaya Street. Although the initial protests sought the resignation of the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, arrests were met with slogans against Putin. Some of the protesters in Moscow shouted "Russia without Putin", "Putin is a thief and a murderer", "It is our city" and "Russia will be free", drawing parallels with previous mass-protests of 2011–13.
  Tverskaya Street and Pushkinskaya Square the whole time until the end of the meeting were on patrol by an unmarked helicopter. Later the police blocked part of the streets, Pushkinskaya Metro station, and underground passages near the protesters.
  According with Human Rights Watch, Russian authorities have harassed, intimidated, or threatened to expel schoolchildren and university students who participated in anti-corruption demonstrations on 26 March. 70 children were arrested in Moscow alone.
  The United States Department of State condemned the detention of protesters, including Alexei Navalny, stating that "detaining peaceful protesters, human rights observers, and journalists is an affront to core democratic values."
caption: Alexei Navalny arrested during the March protests
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