- Title: File of Moscow protests ahead of regional vote
- Date: 6th September 2019
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - AUGUST 10, 2019) (REUTERS) RUSSIAN OPPOSITION POLITICIAN LYUBOV SOBOL BEING DRAGGED BY POLICE OUT OF HER OFFICE AND TAKEN TO POLICE VAN, SOBOL SAYING, AS POLICE LEADS HER TO VAN (Russian): 'THEY DIDN'T EXPLAIN TO ME WHY I WAS DETAINED. I DEMAND MY LAWYER, I DEMAND MY LAWYER TO BE ALLOWED INTO THE CAR!' MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - JULY 20, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTEST RALLY, PROTESTERS HOLDING POSTERS AND RUSSIAN FLAGS OPPOSITION ACTIVIST, ALEXEI NAVALNY SPEAKING FROM STAGE RALLY IN PROGRESS SOBOL AND OTHER OPPOSITION CANDIDATES AT STAGE, ILYA YASHIN SPEAKING FROM STAGE VARIOUS PEOPLE AT RALLY CHEERING SOBOL AND OTHER CANDIDATES AT STAGE MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - JULY 20, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF YASHIN IN COURT ROOM MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - AUGUST 31, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS IN SQUARE VARIOUS OF SOBOL AT SQUARE SURROUNDED BY PROTESTERS SOBOL / PEOPLE IN SQUARE
- Embargoed: 20th September 2019 15:17
- Keywords: opposition Russia arrests Navalny detentions Moscow city parliament Moscow duma Sobol Gudkov Moscow election Zhdanov poll Yashin
- Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- City: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- Country: Russia
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA005AVITJYF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Weeks of demonstrations over elections for the 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.
Chanting "Russia will be free!" and "This is our city!", protesters marched through one of Moscow's thoroughfares. Reuters witnesses estimated their number at a few thousand, while Moscow police said only 750 attended the event, which has not been sanctioned by the government, making it illegal.
The demonstrators have been demanding that opposition candidates be allowed to stand in the election. Around 30 of them - mostly running as independents - have been dropped from the race by the election commission which said they had too many fake voter signatures.
The city council is dominated by President Vladimir Putin's allies.
The elections present a challenge for the authorities with the popularity of United Russia at its lowest in more than a decade, according to official pollsters.
The party has served as a lightning rod for public anger over a government move last year to hike the retirement age, a deeply unpopular reform that compounded growing dismay over five years of falling real incomes.
The party's approval rating stood at 32.6% last month, just shy of its lowest level in more than 13 years of polling data, according to state pollster VTsIOM.
Police detained over 2,000 people at this summer's protests in Moscow, which began in mid-July, with courts jailing some of those who took part for up to four years. The Kremlin has shrugged off the protests' significance.
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