THOUSANDS PROTEST, SEEKING PUTIN’S OUSTER

Tens of thousands of people protested in Russia’s Far East on Saturday in a rare display of opposition to President Vladimir Putin in the country’s vast hinterland, chanting “Putin Resign” and demanding the release of a regional governor arrested this past week on suspicion of multiple murders.

The protests in Khabarovsk, a city bordering China, and several other towns were the largest in Russia’s usually somnolent provinces in many years, rivaling or even exceeding in size demonstrations last summer in Moscow, the main center of opposition to the Kremlin.

Unlike protests in Moscow, which authorities discredit as the work of a privileged metropolitan elite led astray by Russia’s enemies, the outburst of anger against Putin in a hardscrabble region nearly 4,000 miles east of the capital presented an unusual and potentially more troublesome challenge.

The demonstrations in towns across Khabarovsk Krai, a sprawling region that stretches from the frontier with China to the Arctic along the Pacific Ocean, followed the arrest on Thursday of the region’s popular governor, Sergei I. Furgal. He is one of Russia’s few provincial leaders not affiliated with political forces entirely controlled by the Kremlin.

Furgal took office in 2018 after defeating a Kremlin-endorsed candidate. He has been embraced by many Kremlin critics as a victim of political repression by Putin.

AP Thousands of people attend a protest in support of Russian regional Gov. Sergei Furgal and against President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.