Russia pushes back after Navalny’s Putin ‘palace’ probe

MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors warned supporters of Alexei Navalny on Thursday against staging demonstrations, after his probe into President Vladimir Putin’s alleged "palace" became the Kremlin critic’s most-watched YouTube investigation.

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Thursday that the two-hour video report into an opulent Black Sea property allegedly owned by Putin had been viewed more than 41 million times since its release on Tuesday.

The 44-year-old anti-corruption campaigner published the investigation into "the world’s most expensive palace" days after his arrest in Moscow on arrival from Germany. Navalny in the video urged his supporters to take the streets on Saturday to protest Putin, who had ruled over Russia for two decades. Prosecutors responded on Thursday by warning Russians who called for "illegal mass protests" and demanded a ban on websites promoting Saturday’s demonstrations.