Russia’s opposition on Saturday held its largest protest in years in central Moscow in a show of strength and defiance after previous rallies were forcefully dispersed with mass arrests.
Monitors from the White Counter group, an nongovernmental organization that counts participants at rallies, reported that nearly 50,000 people attended the demonstration, making it the largest opposition rally since 2013.
By 7pm, police had made more than 100 arrests, many coming after a group of protesters left the larger, sanctioned demonstration and walked toward Russia’s presidential administration building.
Photo: AP
OVD-Info, a monitoring body, later reported that 229 people were arrested in Moscow and 81 at another rally in St Petersburg.
Riot police in balaclavas wielding nightsticks picked demonstrators out of the crowd and dragged them to nearby police vans, marking the third successive week of protesting in Russia’s capital marked by mass arrests.
Military vans carrying troops in body armor were also seen in downtown Moscow.
As mass arrests began, some protesters unsuccessfully sought refuge in an upscale hotel.
One protester in the process of being detained said: “The demonstration ended and we came here to walk. Now they’re just picking people and detaining them.”
Police also detained opposition leaders and raided a media studio tied to anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny, where supporters were set to run a live broadcast of the protest, activists said.
While the rally was authorized, Navalny — who is currently in jail — had urged supporters to walk peacefully through the city afterwards.
Navalny’s associate, Boris Zolotarevsky, told protesters to proceed to Putin’s administration offices.
He was detained by police shortly afterwards.
Earlier, chanting “dopuskai” (let them through), members of Russia’s opposition had called for independent candidates to be allowed to appear in Moscow’s municipal elections.
Shortly before the demonstration, police officers wearing masks detained Lyubov Sobol, an opposition activist who has declared a hunger strike over her disqualification from the elections.
The police said she was planning a “provocation” at the rally.
The rally had been permitted to go ahead by the city government, even though some speakers called for a march on the presidential administration building.
Monitors allied with the opposition said they counted 49,900 people at 4pm, although police estimated the crowd at 20,000.
“Everyone has his own reason to be here,” said Maria Ostozheva, 53, standing in a plastic poncho on a cold and rainy summer afternoon. “The elections are just part of it. Nothing is changing. We need change.”
Many attendees held signs saying “I have a right to a choice” or photographs of those charged with inciting protests in the past two weeks.
Russian police have cracked down on the protesters more forcefully than usual, opening criminal cases, checking debt and military service records, and even initiating a process to take an infant son from her protesting parents.
The case was later dropped.
“It’s a police state,” said a young protester who gave his name as Mikhail. “My parents know I am here today. They support me. And I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t protest.”
The protest was attended by a number of prominent musicians, including the rappers Face and Oxxxymiron, the popular video blogger Yury Dud and others with appeal among younger Russians.
“I honestly don’t get politics,” said Face, whose real name is Ivan Dryomin. “But I believe that freedom is life. And I hope that we’ll have it one day.”
Additional reporting by AFP
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not