Alexei Navalny presidential campaign

A small concrete box marked with the word SHIZO (punishment cell in Russian) in giant red letters sits incongruously next to a 13th-century church just behind the Louvre museum in Paris.

The grey box is a mock-up of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's punishment prison cell that his team unveiled in the French capital on March 14.

The Association "For Free Russia" (За свободна Русия) will hold rallies in Bulgaria in support of Alexei Navalny and all political prisoners in Russia, as well as in support of Ukraine.

More than 20,000 people protested in Moscow. They demanded the release of the arrested people during the July and August unauthorized protests in the Russian capital.

AFP - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 20 days in jail for organising an anti-Kremlin protest in a new court ruling Monday, the day he was freed after spending a month behind bars.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, left, hugs his brother Oleg Navalny, center, after Oleg was released for the prison as Oleg Navalny's wife Viktoria smiles in Naryshkino, Orel region, 380 kilometers (237 miles) south of Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 29, 2018. AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov

Vladimir Putin will on May 7 be inaugurated for his fourth Kremlin term under the shadow of hugely strained ties with the West and a crackdown on the opposition, with Alexei Navalny and hundreds more detained at the weekend.

NBC News (MOSCOW) — Riot police moved in at a rally in Moscow Saturday afternoon as thousands of people took to the streets to voice their discontent with the government of Vladimir Putin, just days before his inauguration for a fourth presidential term.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained by police on Thursday but then released a short while later, weeks ahead of a presidential election in which he has been barred from running, writes Reuters.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been released after he was arrested Sunday during anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow, according to his official Twitter account.

Russian police arrived at the Moscow headquarters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Sunday morning and started to try to force their way in by using an angle grinder, Kira Yarmysh, a spokeswoman for Navalny said, Reuters reported.