Anchor Of Navalny LIVE Online TV Channel Detained

Navalny LIVE hosts Yelena Malakhovskaya (second from right) and Ivan Zhdanov in the studio along with opposition leader Aleksei Navalny (left) and presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak (right)

Police in Moscow have detained an anchor of the Navalny LIVE online television channel over the May 5 antipresidential protest organized by opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who is also the owner of the channel.

Yelena Malakhovskaya wrote on Twitter that police detained her near her apartment block on May 17.

A lawyer of Navalny's Anticorruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, said that Malakhovskaya is accused of calling on people to attend the unsanctioned protest against President Vladimir Putin.

Malakhovskaya broadcast live the May 5 protests across Russia, during which police detained some 1,600 people, including Navalny.

The demonstrators came out two days before Putin's inauguration for his fourth presidential term.

In January, Navalny's press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, and the press secretary of his campaign, Ruslan Shaveddinov, were sentenced to several days in jail for broadcasting Navalny-organized rallies calling to boycott the March 18 presidential election, which Putin went on to win by a huge margin.