- Title: Putin joins bikers for a ride in Crimea
- Date: 10th August 2019
- Summary: SEVASTOPOL, CRIMEA (AUGUST 10, 2019) (RUSSIAN POOL) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN DRIVING URAL MOTORCYCLE SIDE BY SIDE WITH RUSSIAN 'NIGHT WOLVES' BIKE GROUP LEADER ALEXANDER ZALDOSTANOV PUTIN SHAKES HANDS WITH HEAD OF CRIMEA SERGEI AKSYONOV AND HUGS RUSSIAN 'NIGHT WOLVES' BIKE GROUP LEADER ALEXANDER ZALDOSTANOV PUTIN'S URAL MOTORCYCLE VARIOUS OF PUTIN TALKING TO ZALDOSTANOV, WAVING TO OTHER BIKERS RUSSIAN COAT OF ARMS ON PUTIN'S MOTORCYCLE PUTIN ARRIVING TO BIKE SHOW, BIKERS HONKING HORNS AND APPLAUDING, PUTIN GETTING OFF MOTORCYCLE PUTIN COMING ON STAGE BIKERS APPLAUDING PUTIN ADDRESSING BIKERS FROM STAGE BIKER FILMING PUTIN WITH PHONE PUTIN SPEAKING FROM STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "I am very happy that such manly and cool lads set an example for the young people in our country and show them how one should treat Russia. I congratulate you with your tenth anniversary and I wish you all the best. Thank you!" BIKERS ZALDOSTANOV PRESENTS BIKERS' FUR HAT TO PUTIN, PUTIN SAYS 'HAVE A GOOD NIGHT. THANK YOU.' VARIOUS OF BIKERS
- Embargoed: 24th August 2019 18:21
- Keywords: Russian bikers anniversary Russia Alexander Zaldostanov bike show Sevastopol Vladimir Putin Night Wolves The Surgeon Crimea
- Location: SEVASTOPOL, CRIMEA
- City: SEVASTOPOL, CRIMEA
- Country: Crimea
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001ARMXJRB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Russia's President Vladimir Putin attended a biker show organized by the Night Wolves motorcycle club on the peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, amid vast protests in Moscow and several Russian cities on Saturday (August 10).
Russian state television showed Putin in a leather jacket shaking hands and hugging with Russian biker club leader Alexander Zaldostanov and riding a Ural motorcycle near the Crimean city of Sevastopol, while tens of thousands of Russians staged what a monitoring group called the country's biggest political protest for eight years, defying a crackdown to demand free elections to Moscow's city legislature.
Police rounded up scores of people after the demonstration in Moscow and at another rally in St. Petersburg, and detained a leading opposition figure before it began. But the response from the authorities was milder than the previous week when more than 1,000 protesters were detained, sometimes violently.
The White Counter monitoring group said up to 60,000 people had attended the Moscow rally, describing it as the biggest in Russia for eight years. Police put turnout at 20,000.
A month of demonstrations over elections for the Moscow city legislature have turned into the biggest sustained protest movement in Russia since 2011-2013, when protesters took to the streets against perceived electoral fraud.
Crowds at the rally in Moscow roared "down with the tsar!" and waved Russian flags. They were demanding that opposition-minded candidates be permitted to run in a city election next month after they were not allowed onto the ballot.
Putin and the Kremlin have so far avoided commenting on the unrest over the Moscow city elections. - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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