Critics say, Navalny is the only person who can challenge Putin in the election. Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned earlier that the result would not be good if the procession was without permission. At that time, he also told to punish the protesters.
In 2011-2012, Alexei Navalny led the massive protests against Putin. Last year, he was arrested three times. Every time he was accused of supporting anti-Putin protests.