TENS OF THOUSANDS RALLY IN CHALLENGE TO KREMLIN

Tens of thousands of people marched Saturday across Russia’s Far East city of Khabarovsk on the border with China to protest the arrest of the regional governor on murder charges, continuing a twoweek wave of protests that has challenged the Kremlin.

Sergei Furgal has been in a Moscow jail since his arrest on July 9, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has named an acting successor. Protesters in Khabarovsk see the charges against Furgal as unsubstantiated and demand that he stand trial at home.

“People are offended,” said protester Dmitry Kachalin. “I think people take to the streets because their vote in the 2018 election was taken away.”

Unlike Moscow, where police usually move quickly to disperse unsanctioned opposition protests, authorities haven’t interfered with the unauthorized demonstrations in Khabarovsk, apparently expecting them to fizzle out in the city 3,800 miles east of the Russian capital.

But daily protests, peaking at weekends, have gone on for two weeks, reflecting anger against what residents see as Moscow’s disrespect of their choice for governor and simmering discontent with Putin’s rule. Local officials’ attempts to discourage people from joining the demonstrations by warning about the risk of coronavirus infection have been unsuccessful.

“We had enough,” said protester Anastasia Schegorina. “We elected the governor and we want to be heard and decide ourselves what to do with him. Bring him here, and a fair and open trial will decide whether to convict him or not.”