Campaign Volunteer Day during the presidential campaign, July 8–9, 2017

On July 8–9, 2017, supporters of Alexei Navalny held a large campaign volunteer day (subbotnik, a day of collective volunteer work) in various cities across Russia. Volunteers took to the streets, handed out presidential campaign materials, spoke with people, and recruited supporters. The authorities responded to this peaceful street campaigning with detentions: at least 82 people were detained that day, most of them in Moscow. This gallery shows how ordinary campaigning in Navalny’s campaign became a pretext for police pressure by the state.