1,000-plus arrested in Moscow election protest

MOSCOW — Lines of riot police officers in body armor and helmets blocked the streets of central Moscow on Saturday, arresting more than 1,000 demonstrators — chasing some of them down alleys — to blunt a protest over the fairness of coming city elections.

“We love Russia! They love money!” protesters chanted, a reference to widespread anger over government corruption. Others sat in the streets, awaiting arrest and reading copies of the Russia Constitution.

The spark for Saturday’s protest was a decision by election authorities to bar several opposition candidates from running for Moscow’s City Council, asserting that they had falsified signatures on petitions to run — a charge the candidates denied.

An independent monitoring group said 1,067 people were arrested near City Hall, the intended site of the rally, although many never made it there. As in past protests, authorities began making arrests blocks away so a large crowd could not form. The protest was the latest in a series of street demonstrations staged as President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings have dipped amid economic hardship.

Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who had called the demonstration, was arrested Wednesday and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Other prominent opposition politicians — including Ilya Yashin, Dmitry Gudkov and Ivan Zhdanov — were also rounded up before the event and released only late in the evening.

“It is horrible. My feeling is that we live under an occupation,” said Nadezhda Pilinskaya, 59, referring to the heavy police presence in the city center. “They fear that the end is coming, the end of this regime.”