Moscow police detain 1000 protesters at unauthorized rally over city council election

RT
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 11:27 UTC

© AFP / Kirill Kudryavtsev

Protesters clash with riot police during an unauthorised rally in downtown Moscow, on July 27, 2019.

A protest was organized by the Russian opposition after the Central Election Commission disqualified some candidates wishing to run for the city council. Police detained some of the activists and ordered others to disperse.

People gathered in front of the Moscow mayor's office on Saturday, a week after a previous rally saw at least 12,000 protesters gather in the city center. Unlike the previous demonstration, however, the latest event was not sanctioned.

Mayor Sergey Sobyanin warned Muscovites that the rally could be used for provocations, and advised citizens not to attend. There is a heavy police presence in the area, with some officers wearing riot gear.

© REUTERS / Maxim Shemetov

Law enforcement deployed at the scene of an unsanctioned opposition rally in Moscow.

A screenshot from the Google Maps showing a part of the Moscow city center.

This week's protest was called by opposition activist Aleksey Navalny during the demonstration last Saturday. He was detained on Wednesday and sentenced to a 30-day administrative arrest for organizing an illegal event. Five other activists - Lyubov Sobol, Dmitry Gudkov, Ivan Zhdanov, Ilya Yasin and Yulia Galyamina - were reportedly held by the police on Saturday before they could reach the site of the demonstration.

Dozens of others were also reportedly detained at the scene after failing to comply with police orders to disperse.

The ongoing series of protests in Moscow started two weeks ago after the Central Election Commission disqualified a dozen candidates wishing to run for the city council in September. The commission said fraud was discovered in lists of voter signatures submitted by the candidates as proof of public support. Submitting such proof is required by the Russian law.

The opposition said the disqualification was based on dishonest expert opinions and was thus illegal. They rallied public support to make the commission reconsider. The commission has rejected the opposition demands, saying it would not yield to mob pressure.

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© AFP / Maxim Zmeyev

Protesters attempt to break through a police cordon during an unauthorised rally in downtown Moscow, on July 27, 2019.

A standoff quickly escalated when protesters, who had sought to stage a rally outside the Moscow mayor's office, defied police orders to disperse. On Tverskaya Street, where the office is located, law enforcement personnel were assaulted with pepper spray.

"The gas was sprayed from above, probably from one of the balconies of a nearby building," a police source told TASS. The officers even had to wear gasmasks for a period of time, the Russian media reported.

Six officers were injured in the incident, according to media reports. Two other police officers suffered injuries in separate incident, police said, without providing any further details.

In a separate incident, protesters also pelted officers with stones and sought to break through a police cordon on several occasions. The demonstrators blocked several streets in the city center near the mayor's office, and vandalized some outdoor dining areas, according to TASS.

The police had to respond by forcibly dispersing the crowd. Almost 300 people were detained following the initial clashes by 15:20 (local time) (12:20 GMT), police said in a statement. Some activist groups claimed, though, that the number of those arrested exceeded 500 at that time. Most of those detained were not Moscow residents, according to police.

Over 3,500 people took part in the action in defiance of a ban by the Moscow authorities. Following the clashes with police, the protesters retreated from the Tverskaya Street and moved to the Trubnaya Square, also in the city center, where they attempted to stage another unsanctioned rally. A group of protesters briefly blocked part of the Garden Ring (Sadovoye Koltso), a ten-lane transport artery.

The police moved in seeking to disperse the crowd. More than 1,000 people were detained following the Saturday protests, the police said in a statement. At least 10 people were detained during the follow-up action. Earlier, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin warned Muscovites that the rally could be used for provocations, and advised citizens not to attend.

The protest organizers apparently planned provocations at the Saturday rally all along, said a member of the presidential human rights council, Kirill Kabanov. "The provocations ... were prepared in advance. They were needed to give the protests a flavor favorable towards the organizers," he told the Russian media.

Saturday's protest was called by an opposition activist, Aleksey Navalny, during another demonstration last weekend, which was sanctioned by the Moscow authorities. He was detained on Wednesday and sentenced to a 30-day administrative arrest for organizing an illegal event. Some other opposition activists were also detained either before or during this Saturday's rally.

For more Navalny and his activities:

• Revelation from British intelligence archives - Alexei Navalny is an MI6 & CIA agent
• Russia's State Duma implements law neutralizing Navalny's exploitation of children in protests
• Court turns down National Guard chief's defamation suit against Kremlin critic Navalny