BREAKING NEWS

Police detain more than 100 people at protests in support of Navalny

Russian police rounded up scores of protesters on Wednesday as allies of hunger-striking Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny staged nationwide protests over his failing health in jail.
Supporters of President Vladimir Putin's most outspoken opponent fear he could die soon and are demanding he be given proper medical care. Officials say he has been treated as any other convict would be, and have warned the rallies are illegal.
The confrontation over Navalny's fate has become another flashpoint in Moscow's dire relations with the West, already aggravated by economic sanctions, diplomatic expulsions and a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.
OVD-Info, a group that monitors protests and detentions, said that 199 people had been detained over the rallies in dozens of different places. The figure was expected to climb.
Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh and close ally Lyubov Sobol were detained near their homes in Moscow hours before a rally in the Russian capital was set to converge on a square near the Kremlin.