Second day of protests in Russian far east city

Demonstrators in the Russian far east city of Khabarovsk held a second day of protests against the arrest of the region’s governor on suspicion of involvement in several murders.

The demonstration in the city 3,800 miles east of Moscow was smaller than a massive gathering on Saturday that was estimated at up to 35,000 people.

The local office of opposition leader Alexei Navalny estimated yesterday’s turnout at about 2,000.

Sergei Furgal, the Khabarovsk region governor, was arrested on Thursday and flown to Moscow, where he was interrogated and jailed for two months.

Russia’s main criminal investigation body says he is suspected of involvement in several murders of businessmen in 2004 and 2005, before his political career began.

Furgal, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, was elected governor in 2018 in a setback for president Vladimir Putin and is widely popular in the region.