A demonstrator clashes with a police officer during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Pushkin square in Moscow, Russia, Jan 23, 2021. (VICTOR BEREZKIN / AP)
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the United States embassy in Moscow of meddling in opposition rallies across the country on Saturday demanding the release from prison of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and asked for explanations from the US.
Yesterday the US embassy in Moscow published ‘the protest routes’ in Russian cities and ... information about a ‘march on the Kremlin’. ... The US diplomats will have to provide explanations at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
"Yesterday the US embassy in Moscow published 'the protest routes' in Russian cities and injected the information about a 'march on the Kremlin'," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said. "What was that? A setup or an instruction? Even the organizers had not announced these plans. The US diplomats will have to provide explanations at the Russian Foreign Ministry."
The US embassy has shown disregard for diplomatic rules and regulations by posting messages on social media in support of unsanctioned protests in Russian cities, Zakharova said.
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"We can imagine what could have happened if Russia's embassy in Washington had published a map of protest routes with destinations, for example at the Capitol. This kind of orienteering should have ended up with a global hysteria of American politicians, including Russophobic slogans, the threats of sanctions and the expulsion of Russian diplomats."
The ministry said earlier that the information posted on the US embassy's site about times and locations for unsanctioned rallies was going beyond concern for US nationals in Russia.
Moscow would view the attempts of the US embassy to "cover" the unauthorized rallies in Russia as interference in internal affairs, the ministry warned.
The ministry made the remarks after activists staged unauthorized protests in a number of Russian cities earlier in the day to show support for Navalny.
About 4,000 people took part in the rally at Pushkin Square near the Kremlin, the Moscow branch of the Russian Interior Ministry said in a news release.
READ MORE: Moscow criticizes US embassy for supporting protests in Russia
More than 600 protesters had been detained by police in downtown Moscow, said Tass news agency.
Russian authorities say five months that Navalny spent in Germany violated a previous suspended sentence for a conviction, which he has said was for bogus charges. Navalny is being held in Matrosskaya Tishina prison.
