- Title: File of Moscow protests ahead of regional vote
- Date: 6th September 2019
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - AUGUST 6, 2019) (REUTERS) HEAD OF CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION, ELLA PAMFILOVA, SPEAKING TO OPPOSITION FIGURE, LYUBOV SOBOL SOBOL SPEAKING VARIOUS OF SOBOL IN CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - JULY 14, 2019) (REUTERS) MAYOR'S OFFICE BUILDING RUSSIAN OPPOSITION MEMBER, LYUBOV SOBOL, SPEAKING TO RALLY IN FRONT OF MOSCOW MAYOR OFFICE RALLY IN FRONT OF MAYOR'S OFFICE VARIOUS OF RUSSIAN PROTESTER, ALEXANDER SOLOVYOV, SPEAKING TO PROTESTERS PROTESTERS IN FRONT OF MOSCOW ELECTION COMMISSION RUSSIAN PROTESTER, IVAN ZHDANOV, SPEAKING TO PROTESTERS MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - AUGUST 3, 2019) (REUTERS) RIOT POLICE DETAINING PEOPLE AT OPPOSITION RALLY RIOT POLICE PUSHING DETAINED YOUNG MAN INTO POLICE BUS, SEARCHING HIS POCKETS
- 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: LVA001AVITJYF
- 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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