This article is from the source 'rtcom' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.rt.com/news/465218-moscow-election-protests-arrests/

The article has changed 13 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 6 Version 7
Over 1,000 detained at unsanctioned Moscow rally after clashes & attempts to block roads (VIDEO) Over 1,000 detained at unsanctioned Moscow rally after clashes & attempts to block roads (VIDEO)
(about 1 hour later)
A protest organized by liberal Russian opposition figures, demanding places on on the ballot ahead of September's Moscow city council elections, has ended in clashes with police, resulting in injuries and hundreds of arrests. A protest organized by liberal Russian opposition figures, demanding places on on the ballot ahead of September's Moscow city council elections, has ended in clashes with police.
Saturday’s unsanctioned march saw eight officers injured and over a thousand protesters arrested, according to Moscow police.  Saturday's march was one of the biggest unsanctioned rallies for years, with around 3,500 participants, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, of whom 700 were working journalists. Some independent Russian media outlets estimate the numbers involved at over 5,000. More than 1,000 were detained by authorities. 
A standoff 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 confrontation began just after lunchtime, as marchers met a large security presence around the capital's central Tverskaya Street, where the Moscow Mayor's office is located. Protestors who tried to break through police lines were pushed back onto side streets, with batons used to disperse. Business daily RBC reported that the charge was met by bottles. The newspaper's journalists also described seeing "potential provocateurs" among the opposition who called for confrontation with riot police.
“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. Clashes continued for several hours at various points around the city centre, including the busy Garden Ring highway, with marchers calling for the resignation of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
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. Many of the ringleaders had already been detained beforehand. Including unregistered candidates for the Moscow City elections Ivan Zhdanov, Lyubov Sobol, Dmitry Gudkov and Ilya Yashin. A court fined Sobol 30,000 rubles ($470), but the others were released with their hearings postponed for a week. The group later appeared at Trubnaya Square, where they were again arrested. Yashin called on protestors to gather for another attempt  in a week's time.
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. Saturday's events followed an authorised rally seven days previously, which attracted between 12,000 (police figures) and 22,000 (opposition numbers). That event passed off peacefully, but the liberal candidates upped the ante when they supported protest leader Alexey Navalny's call for a march on City Hall, which was never likely to receive official approval.
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. As a result, tensions built up over recent days, with Mayor Sobyanin even taking the unusual step of using Twitter to warn Muscovites not to participate, saying "organising riots will not lead to anything good."
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. During the rally, police also raided the offices of TV channel Rain, with Chief Editor Aleksandra Perepelova taken in for questioning. In addition, the network alleged there had been a DDoS attack on its servers.
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. The stand off began when Moscow's election commission disqualified a number of independent candidates, hoping to run in September's City Council race, due to paperwork irregularities. Some of those affected said the decision was illegal and made under false pretexts.
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. There are 45 seats up for grabs and getting on the ballot requires collecting a certain number of signatures from voters in the constituency that the candidate seeks to represent. The commission may disqualify a candidate if it believes a significant percentage of the signatures submitted are not genuine. The commission said it disqualified 57 people and registered 233 as candidates.
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 argued that they had forged voter signatures that they were required to submit as proof of public support. The disqualified candidates claimed the assessment process was flawed and called on the public to join the protests to make the authorities reconsider. Bryan MacDonald
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!