MOSCOW — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been barred from running in next month’s presidential election, said he was briefly detained by police Thursday.
Navalny said on his Twitter account that he was nabbed early Thursday afternoon as he was leaving a dentist’s office in Moscow. Less than an hour later he tweeted that he was taken to a police station where he was presented with charges of organizing an unsanctioned rally and released.
There was no official confirmation, and it was not immediately clear when he would appear in court.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s best-known opponent, spearheaded protest rallies last month, calling for a boycott of the presidential vote. He was briefly detained at a Jan. 28 protest in Moscow, but police did not immediately bring any charges against him.
Navalny’s allies speculated that police would delay charging him to allow authorities to keep him behind bars on the election date, March 18.
Navalny mounted a nationwide grass-roots presidential campaign last year, tapping into the discontent in Russia’s once politically dormant provinces that have traditionally voted for Putin.