An anti-corruption candidate and lawyer live streamed her arrest this morning ahead of a massive opposition rally in Moscow city centre.
Police on Saturday detained Lyubov Sobol, one of the city council candidates denied a place on the ballot and a spearhead of the election protest.
A video on Sobol’s Twitter feed showed officers breaking into her office as she demanded an explanation from them.
Tens of thousands of Muscovites staged Russia’s biggest political protest for years on Saturday, rallying to demand free city-wide elections in spite of a government crackdown.
Hours before the demonstration, police detained one of the leading opposition activists, Lyubov Sobol, who is on a hunger strike. Masked men raided her office and the police said they had information she and other activists were plotting a ‘provocation’ at Saturday’s rally.
Protesters filed through metal detectors with flags and banners, staging their fourth major protest in a month calling for opposition-minded candidates forced off the ballot to be allowed to run in a city election next month.
Anti-corruption candidate and lawyer Lyubov Sobol, pictured being dragged away by police at a demonstration held in Moscow last weekend. She was later released although civil rights campaigner claim she was detained again this morning
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow to protest against a decision to prevent opposition politicians from standing in city elections next month
Estimates of those present range between 20,000 and 40,000 demonstrators at today’s event which had received official permission from authorities
There was a heavy police presence at the rally on central Prospekt Andreya Sakhorova street in the city centre
Moscow officials authorised Saturday’s rally, unlike last weekend when police detained more than 1,000 people, sometimes violently, at an unauthorised demonstration.
The White Counter monitoring group said it had counted 40,000 people at the rally. Police estimated turnout at 20,000. Russia has not seen sustained opposition demonstrations on this scale since 2011-2013 when protesters took to the streets against perceived electoral fraud.
Investigators have opened criminal proceedings against about a dozen people for what they say was mass civil unrest at earlier protests, a crime that carries a heavy jail term. They have also opened a money-laundering investigation into Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation.
Ahead of Saturday’s protest, masked police searched an office used by opposition activist Sobol and took her in for questioning, she wrote on Twitter.
‘I won’t make it to the protest. But you know what to do without me….Russia will be free!’ Sobol said.
Throngs of protesters, sheltering from rain under umbrellas, chanted ‘freedom for political prisoners’ and ‘Russia will be free’.
At a demonstration last month more than one thousand protesters were arrested by police
The protesters demand authorities allow opposition candidates to stand for election
Demonstrators held up posters featuring the image of some of those opposition leaders currently in jail
Some pro-Kremlin politicians and officials have suggested that the West has helped orchestrate the protests. Navalny and at least seven of his allies are currently in jail for breaking protest law.
Several of Russia’s most popular musicians have said they want to perform at Saturday’s protest, which the authorities have rejected.
Some opposition activists have also said they plan to walk through central Moscow afterwards, setting up a possible confrontation with police who say they will not tolerate trouble.
Navalny allies are also staging protests in other Russian cities. A Reuters reporter saw about 10 people being detained at a rally in the city of St Petersburg.
The focus of protesters’ anger is a prohibition on a slew of opposition-minded candidates, some of whom are allies of Navalny, from taking part in a September election for Moscow’s city legislature.
Several opposition leaders are currently in jail awaiting trial on what protesters claimed are politically-motivated charges
The council elections are seen as a dry run for 2021’s national parliamentary poll
According to opinion polls, the ruling United Russia party is facing its lowest levels of support as is President Vladimir Putin as a result of deteriorating living standards in Russia
That vote, though local, is seen as a dry run for a national parliamentary election in 2021.
Authorities say the opposition candidates failed to collect enough genuine signatures to register. The excluded candidates say that is a lie and insist on taking part in a contest they believe they could win.
The ruling United Russia party’s popularity rating is at its lowest since 2011 and President Vladimir Putin’s own rating has fallen due to discontent over falling living standards.
At well over 60 percent, it is still high compared to many other world leaders however, and last year the 66-year-old former KGB intelligence officer won a landslide re-election and a new six-year term until 2024.
Protesters had to walk through metal detectors before being allowed into the site of the rally
Opposition candidates are being routinely arrested to prevent them from standing in election