In Moscow, the police en masse packed up screaming Ukrainian chants
More than 400 supporters of the liberal opposition were detained today near the Moscow City Hall while attempting to hold an unauthorized protest demanding that “independent” candidates be registered to participate in the September elections.
It is interesting that protest leaders like Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Dmitry Gudkov were detained by law enforcement officers even before the start of the demonstration for calling for an illegal rally.
The action itself near the city hall, according to security officials, gathered about 3500 people (and a significant part of them were journalists or bloggers). The opposition insists that the number of protesters was several thousand more.
It is noteworthy that the opposition TV channel “Dozhd” opened free access to the air the day before for the first time since the protests on Bolotnaya Square. And the Gazprom-sponsored radio station Ekho Moskvy regularly broadcast announcements of the rally.
The protesters sang a Ukrainian obscene chant about Putin several times, and also chanted “Better put out Siberia!”, “Shame!”, “This is our city!”, “Putin is a thief!”, “Sobyanin resign!”, “Russia without Putin.” !”, “Garbage is a disgrace to Russia!” and so on.
The police initially pushed the protesters from Tverskaya into the courtyards. Then, after attempts to break through the cordon, the security forces made harsh arrests of the most active participants in the action.
Now some of the demonstrators have left the area near the city hall, announcing that they are heading for a “walk” in the center of Moscow.
It’s interesting that today’s protest made a policewoman, spotted by one of the photographers near the city hall, popular. Bloggers immediately found the page of the pretty law enforcement officer on social networks.
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