Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Marchers in Moscow protest election
MOSCOW — Thousands of people marched across central Moscow on Saturday to protest the exclusion of some city council candidates from the Russian capital’s local election, but the protest did not result in riot police making mass arrests and giving beatings like at earlier demonstrations.
Opposition-led protests were held in Moscow this summer after election officials barred more than a dozen opposition and independent candidates from running in the Sept. 8 election for the Moscow city legislature. Some marchers on Saturday held placards demanding freedom for political prisoners: 14 people arrested in earlier protests face charges that could send them to prison for up to eight years.
The only police seen along the route to Pushkin Square were traffic officers, a contrast to the previous unsanctioned demonstrations where phalanxes of helmeted, truncheon-wielding riot police confronted demonstrators.
At earlier protests, authorities did not allow key opposition figures to get anywhere near the places they were held.
This time, the protest leaders attended the gathering unhindered.
Lyubov Sobol, one of the rejected city council candidates, marched along the boulevards with her supporters. The crowd chanted “Thank you” to Sobol, who spearheaded the protests after going on hunger strike. Several people gave her flowers. “Our demands are right and reasonable. We have significant support. We have the right to be on the ballot,” Sobol said at the event.