MOSCOW, Aug 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Russian opposition vowed to stage
another mass rally Saturday despite increasing pressure from authorities, who
arrested nearly 1,400 people at a protest last week and have launched a
criminal probe into the movement.
The march along Moscow’s leafy boulevards will be the latest in a series
of demonstrations after officials refused to let popular opposition
candidates run in next month’s city parliament elections.
The local issue has boiled over into one of the worst political conflicts
of recent years, with rallies of up to 22,000 people and police violence
against demonstrators.
Over 6,000 people said on Facebook they would take part in the march along
Moscow’s so-called Boulevard Ring on Saturday to “bring back the right to
elections”.
Officials say candidates were disqualified because they forged the
necessary signatures.
But candidates, including allies of top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny,
insist their signatures were thrown out arbitrarily, and the whole vetting
process was skewed against them.
Many Muscovites said their signatures in support of the opposition were
declared invalid with no reason.
– ‘Right to choose’ –
Some turned up at previous protests brandishing banners with slogans such
as “I have a right to choose”.
In the polls in September, the opposition hopes to end the monopoly of
Kremlin loyalists in Moscow’s parliament.
The body decides over the city’s multi-billion-dollar budget but lacks
political independence from mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of Putin.
Putin has yet to comment on the political crisis in Moscow.
Navalny and other protest leaders argue corruption is rife in the capital.
Navalny is also currently in jail, but his team on Thursday released a
report accusing Sobyanin’s deputy of selling prime Moscow property to her
family members at rock-bottom prices.
Authorities have launched investigations into last weekend’s “mass riots”
and “violence against police”, echoing similar probes into protests against
Vladimir Putin in 2012 which saw several people jailed.
Four people were formally arrested pending trial Friday, though the
opposition stressed that the protest was peaceful.
“Their task is to paralyse the protest movement, to isolate its leaders
and frighten participants,” one rejected candidate, Ilya Yashin, wrote on
Facebook.
He is currently being held for 10 days in a police cell for violating
rules on legal protests.
– Hunger strikes –
“There were no mass riots in Moscow, not by a long shot,” Yashin wrote.
One of the men arrested is suspected of injuring a policeman by allegedly
throwing a plastic bottle into the ranks of national guard wearing heavy
protective gear.
Several candidates have declared hunger strikes.
Moscow police on Friday issued a warning for people not to attend the
rally.
“We repeat that the event is illegal,” it said on its website. “We suggest
that residents and visitors refrain from participating.”
Police “will take all necessary measures,” the Moscow prosecutors’ office
said.
Reports said that the head of Moscow police even petitioned the Russian
Premier League to reschedule a match between the city’s two top teams, which
may trigger fan violence and require a massive presence of the force in two
places at once.
The petition was rejected, a source told TASS news agency.