More than 1,000 people were arrested at a protest rally in the Russian capital Moscow. This number was called the police on Saturday night.
The background of the unauthorized demonstration was the exclusion of numerous opposition politicians from regional elections in early September.
1,074 participants in the demonstration had come into police custody for „various offenses“, the agency Interfax quoted the police. They would now have to answer for „disturbing public order,“ it says in a statement. In the afternoon, the police had spoken of nearly 300 arrested.
The civil rights portal OWD-Info, which records arrests at demonstrations, also listed more than 1,000 cases in the evening. According to the officials, a total of about 3,500 participants were counted.
The rally at the town hall had previously not been approved by the authorities. The security forces had expressly warned against participation and announced a crackdown. In the afternoon, they had secured the town hall and the square in front of it with a large squad and many emergency vehicles and buses.
There, the demonstration was originally supposed to take place. The rally participants therefore avoided the adjacent streets. It also showed how a police cordon was broken. The crowd applauded afterwards.
Protester: „What happens here is illegal“
The protesters demand that independent candidates and opposition members be admitted to the election of the new Moscow City Parliament on 8 September. „This is our city“ and „We want free elections,“ the protesters shouted. A protester who did not want to give his name said to dpa: „What happens here is illegal. Politics is breaking our rights. „During the rally, the Internet did not work at times. Dpa reporters also reported injuries.
Previously, numerous politicians such as the prominent Kremlin critic Ilja Yashin were not registered as applicants because they were allegedly missing the necessary signatures or their documents had flawed, as the authorities claimed. In some cases individual forms are missing in forms, in others the wrong gender is indicated.
In addition, according to the authorities some supporters are already dead, although they were photographed according to opposition at signing. In total, the electoral commission refused to register 57 candidates and 233 had been admitted. Currently, the People’s Representation of the Russian capital has 45 seats.
Opposition speaks of manipulation
The excluded politicians emphasize that they have been foisted on absurd mistakes and speak of manipulation. The way into the city parliament is denied them, so that they did not detract from the victory of the Kremlin party United Russia, said the opposition Gudkov the radio station Echo Moskwy. The ruling party United Russia with its chairman Dmitry Medvedev has been losing strong approval for some time.
According to the decisions of the authorities, the Municipal Court of Moscow received about 30 complaints from the Interfax agency. In some cases they have been rejected. Other decisions are still pending. Protesters and demonstrators have been taking to the streets regularly for almost two weeks. One week ago, up to 20,000 people were counted in a protest action. It was the biggest demonstration in years.
Nawalny called Demos
The well-known Kremlin critic Alexej Nawalny called for this. He was sentenced on Wednesday by a court to 30 days in prison. He then renewed his call.
Oppositions also caused outrage that the police had recently stepped up their actions against them. Yashin reported Saturday that he had been taken to a police station and interrogated. He was released in the evening but again. A court will deal with his case in the coming week, it was said.
Opposition politicians Ivan Zhdanov, Lyubov Sobol and Dmitri Gudkov were also detained shortly before the rally began on Saturday, AFP reported. On Friday, according to AFP, several election offices were searched by Nawalny’s allies. That was „brazen and unlawful pressure on the opposition in the middle of the election campaign,“ wrote Yashin via Twitter.
Gudkov called on the Russians to fight for free and fair elections despite the reprisals. „We’re not talking about our mandates anymore,“ he said Friday. „If we lose now, there will be no elections as a political instrument, and the repressive apparatus will throw the country back to 1937,“ he added, referring to the climax of the Stalin dictatorship.
