Over 3,000 people arrested in Russia for demanding Alexie Navalny's release

At least 3,000 arrests were announced on Saturday in locations spanning from Siberia to Moscow, according to the OVD-info group that monitors political arrests, as thousands more demonstrated in temperatures as low as -50C.

Among the arrested was Navalny's wife Yulia, who had joined the crowds in the capital. She initially posted a selfie to Instagram among the crowd, and later another - from inside "the paddy wagon".

Videos on social media during the day showed police fighting with rebels at many of the 60 planned rallies, as well as pinning people into the snow. On Strastnoy Boulevard in Moscow, an enormous fight broke out in exchanges of punches, pushing, and blows with riot batons.

In the Tverskoy District, also in Moscow, four police officers were pelted with dozens of snowballs as they held key of the adjacent road. Footage from the southwestern city of Kazan, meanwhile, showed officers chasing and pinning down protesters, beating them with batons.

The demonstrations had been planned throughout the week in response to Navalny's own arrest last Sunday. They served as an example of the anti-corruption activist's large base of support, even in the face of consistent government repression.

Navalny, who is the Kremlin's most conspicuous critic, was detained on January 17 as he arrived back in Russia after spending the last five months in Germany, recovering from being poisoned. He had been given the deadly nerve agent Novichok in an act he believes was likely approved by his largest rival, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following his arrest, a judge jailed Navalny for 30 days for violating the terms of a deferred sentence from 2014 over a conviction for financial misdeeds. The 44-year-old continues the case was politically motivated. He will return to court in February to find out if he will serve his three-and-a-half-year sentence in prison.