Protesters pelted riot police with snowballs during clashes in Russia after a human rights activist was sentenced to four years in a penal colony.
Monitoring group OVD-Info said dozens of people were arrested and injured, with one protester suffering a “fractured head.”
Crowds gathered outside a courthouse in Bashkortostan to support local activist Phil Alsenov, as officers fired tear gas into the crowd.
Some reports indicate that a few thousand people participated in the protest, which continues for several days in freezing temperatures of around -20 degrees Celsius.
Alsenov was imprisoned on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, which he denies.
