BUCHAREST – The Kremlin said on Monday that a large number of people who took part in protests against the jailing of oppositions politician Alexei Navalny on Sunday were ‘hooligans and provocateurs’.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that dialogue with such people would be impossible, a day after Navalny’s allies staged protests in Moscow and dozens of cities across Russia.

‘There can be no conversation with hooligans and provocateurs’, Peskov said.