On February 2, a Moscow court replaced Alexey Navalny's suspended sentence on the Yves Rocher case with a real jail term. Taking into account the house arrest, Navalny will have to serve 2 years and 8 months in a general regime penal colony.
After the verdict was announced, many people took to the streets to express their disagreement with the court ruling. As a result, over 1,400 protesters were detained in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Similarly to the scenario of the protest action held on January 31, riot police used stun guns and beat peaceful protesters. At least 1,408 were detained in eleven cities of Russia, with Moscow and St. Petersburg accounting for the largest share of detentions.
The detainees are charged with administrative violations of the rules for participation in actions (Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code); they face fines from 10 to 300 thousand rubles and arrest terms from 15 to 30 days.
In Moscow, people stood up raising their hands up, chanting that they were unarmed. In response, riot police began to beat the protesters. In addition, riot police stopped and asked drivers to get out of their cars for honking in support of the protesters.
In St. Petersburg, the riot police detained bystanders who tried to get through to the subway. The station was closed, and the riot police started forcing people go into police vans. Those who refused to go voluntarily or tried to go to the subway were threatened with a stun gun. At least one man was electrocuted: he tried to find out the reason for which he was being detained. When at police stations, most of the detainees were forced to have their photos and finger prints taken. Many had to spend the night at police stations.