Navalny, Aide Detained

Both noncandidate Navalny and his senior aide, Leonid Volkov, have been detained today.

Here's Navalny's Instagram post from custody.

Here's what we know so far about the Navalny detention, via our newsroom. The story will be updated as more information comes in, so click on headline to see the latest.

Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Detained

By RFE/RL

Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says he has been detained by police in Moscow.

Navalny wrote on Twitter on February 22 that police approached him as he was leaving a dentist's office and told him, "You're detained."

He said he was being taken "somewhere" but did not know where.

Navalny, a foe of President Vladimir Putin who has organized protests and published reports alleging corruption in Russia's ruling elite, has been barred from the country's March 18 presidential election due to a conviction on charges he contends were fabricated.

He has been detained numerous times and served short jail terms for organizing unauthorized protests and other alleged infractions.

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Navalny's tweet announcing his detention.

"My tooth hurt, went to the dentist. Came out of the dentist's office - Hello, Second Operational Regiment, you're detained. Driving somewhere."

Here is barred candidate Navalny's tweet from minutes earlier, saying authorities had detained his senior aide, Leonid Volkov. He says Volkov was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport before a planned trip to Bashkortostan, which Navalny calls "one of the most important regions in terms of organizing election observation."

Volkov confirms his intended destination was Ufa:

Navalny Freed, Says Case Launched

Navalny has been released after detention, he tweets, was served a protocol indicating a case against him has been launched. So a hearing to come, at some point. Says he declined their offer of a ride and "went to work." Also wonders why it took seven people to detain him.

This story by Current Time TV lists the several detentions of key Navalny people over the past month. They include -- in addition to Navalny himself and Volkov -- Roman Romanov, Kira Yarmysh and Ruslan Shaveddinov, and Moscow coordinator Sergei Boyko along with Nikolai Lyaskin.

U.S. Diplomats Won't Be Allowed To Monitor Russian Election

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says U.S. diplomats won't be allowed to observe voting during the presidential election. The reason? Ryabkov says Russian diplomats weren't accorded the same right during the 2016 presidential election in the United States.

Novaya Gazeta says the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has already been informed of the decision.

How It Was Done In The Past

Russian activists targeting vote fraud have assembled this revealing collection of clips from polling stations during the 2016 Duma elections, which the ruling United Russian party won handily according to official figures. For Russian speakers, the clips are interspersed with comments from Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin about how the people support United Russia and how there were no election violations.

Authorities in Yekaterinburg seized all copies of a newspaper titled "Путинская правда" campaigning against Putin’s presidential candidacy.

Here's the Current Time TV article in Russian. There's a video report coming soon. Watch this space.