Putin urges all citizens to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as Navalny supporters rally

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin called for all citizens to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as he gave his annual address to the nation on Wednesday, delivered as rallies began in support of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

Putin said “maximum coverage” of the population by inoculation was now a priority for the country. “It is the only way to stop the deadly pandemic,” he said.

“I call for all regional governments, health ministry to continue working on it. The opportunity to get vaccinated should be widely available so by autumn we would be able to develop herd immunity.”

Putin also vowed to fight climate change, saying: “We must respond to climate change and adapt agriculture and industry.”

He said a carbon recycling industry should be created, while strict control and monitoring should be placed on emissions. “For the next 30 years the amount of emissions should be lower than in [the] European Union,” he urged. “It’s a difficult task, considering the geography of our country, its size and structure of the economy. But I am absolutely sure it’s achievable.”

As Putin was speaking, protests started in the far east of the country in support of detained opposition leader Navalny, who has been on hunger strike since March 31. He was moved this week from a penal colony to a regional hospital for prisoners east of Moscow as concerns grow over his health.

Navalny’s team tweeted a photo apparently showing protesters being detained in Magadan, in Russia’s far east. OVD-Info, an independent monitoring group, reported that at least eight people had been detained in the city. Arrests have also taken place in Kahbarovsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Irkutsk, all in Russia’s Far Eastern regions, OVD-Info said.

Russia’s Interior Ministry on Monday warned people to “refrain from participating in unauthorized actions,” citing coronavirus restrictions.

For months, opposition activists have been met with a harsh show of force, demonstrated most clearly on January 31, when more than 5,000 people were detained during nationwide protests in 85 cities in support of Navalny.

Two close Navalny allies, his press secretary Kira Yarmysh and activist Lyubov Sobol, were detained Wednesday morning in Moscow, according to their lawyers.

“The cops staged a plan of ‘interception’ and pulled Lyubov Sobol out of a taxi near the Avtozavodskaya metro station,” Sobol’s lawyer, Vladimir Voronin, tweeted. “It is still unknown where they are taking her.”

Meanwhile, Yarmysh was detained at the entrance to her house as she was going to the store at a time permitted under the terms of her house arrest, according to her lawyer, Veronika Polyakova. Yarmysh is under house arrest after being accused of “violation of sanitary norms” during protests on January 23 in support of Navalny in Moscow.

‘Walking skeleton’

Navalny has been on hunger strike for three weeks, demanding “proper medical care” and to be examined by an independent doctor — something his team claims he has been unable to get in the penal colony in Pokrov.

Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said in a statement Monday that he had been moved to a prison hospital that specializes in “dynamic” observation of patients. The hospital is located on the “territory” of another penal colony, in the Vladimir region.

The statement said Navalny was in “satisfactory” condition and is being examined by a doctor every day. With Navalny’s consent, he has been prescribed “vitamin therapy,” the penitentiary service added.

In an Instagram post shared by his team on Tuesday, Navalny joked about his current condition, saying he looked like “a walking skeleton” who could be used to scare children who refused to eat.

“If you were to see me now, you would have a laugh. A walking skeleton, staggering around the cell,” Navalny said.

Commenting on doctors’ concerns about a dangerously high level of potassium in his blood, he said: “You can’t just take me so easily. After ‘Novichok’ even potassium is not so terrible.”

Navalny blames the Russian security services for his poisoning last year with the nerve agent Novichok. The US and European Union largely agree and have sanctioned Russian officials for their involvement. Russia denies any involvement in the poisoning.

Navalny was sent to prison after a Moscow court on February 2 replaced his suspended sentence with jail time due to violations of his probation. He was arrested when he returned to Moscow from Germany, where he had been recovering from the poisoning.

US words ‘not strong enough’

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday, Navalny’s chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, said the Russian authorities did not want the Kremlin critic to “die in custody, but they want him to suffer.”

Volkov said Navalny had been fed glucose but had returned to a hunger strike in protest against his captivity. “He’s very weak but still able to walk… and during transportation from his colony to his prison hospital, he felt very ill, was given glucose, but now he’s back on hunger strike and will keep on.”

According to Volkov, Russian authorities refused to let Navalny be treated by his own medical team when they arrived earlier Tuesday at the facility where he is being kept in solitary confinement.

On Sunday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that in the event Navalny died, Russia would be held accountable and there would be “consequences.”

Volkov told CNN that Sullivan’s words were “strong but not strong enough” on Navalny’s treatment.

“He’s being held in prison unlawfully, he’s being tortured… he has to be immediately released and the European Court of Human Rights is part of Russia’s legal system, it has to comply,” he said. “I prefer Putin is held accountable for what happens now, before he dies.”