RUSSIA-OPPOSITION RALLY Hundreds of pro-Kremlin activists show up at opposition rally in central Moscow

Record ID: 214843

  • Title: RUSSIA-OPPOSITION RALLY Hundreds of pro-Kremlin activists show up at opposition rally in central Moscow
  • Date: 15th January 2015
  • Summary: ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RESIDENT OF SOUTH-EAST UKRAINE, GOSHA, SAYING: "Personally I am here because I have heard that they are planning to organise Maidan here, under the pretext of freedom for Navalny, freedom of speech, with the intention to start rocking Russia the way it happened in Ukraine. And I came here to not let it happen.
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA11H35V9BSY5QKTJTXS4XNAJGE
  • Story Text: A rally in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny was hijacked by pro-Kremlin activists on Thursday (January 15) who flooded the same square in the centre of Moscow.
    People wearing St. George's ribbons, a black-and-orange-striped military honour introduced by Catherine the Great, surrounded the few protesters and roared them down with a slogan 'Maidan will not pass!'.
    Maidan or Square of Independence in central Kiev, has given its name to the pro-European demonstrations in the Ukrainian capital that swept then-President Viktor Yanukovich from power.
    Some of those who gathered at the square in Moscow said they wanted to prevent a revolution happening in Russia.
    "Personally, I am here because I have heard that they are planning to organise Maidan (main square in Kiev), under the pretext of freedom for Navalny, freedom of speech, with the intention to start rocking Russia the way it happened in Ukraine. And I came here to not let it happen," said Gosha, a resident of south-eastern Ukraine, who came to the rally wearing a flag of pro-Russian rebels on his shoulders.
    Navalny, 38, remains one of the biggest thorns in Putin's side even though he appears to have little chance of mounting a serious electoral challenge to the Kremlin leader, whose popularity is high following the annexation of Crimea.
    Navalny won a better-than-expected 27.3 percent of votes in the 2013 Moscow mayor elections. Though he lost out to the Kremlin-backed Sergei Sobyanin, allies hailed his showing as a victory in a political system where elections are tightly controlled.
    Initially the final hearing of Navalny's case was set on December 15 and his supporters started organising a rally, but later the trial was brought forward.
    Navalny was handed a suspended sentence on December 30 after being found guilty of embezzling money.
    He was placed under house arrest almost a year ago during the investigation but said after the trial ended that the order no longer had any legal basis.
    His brother was jailed for three and a half years in the same case. They had faced charges of stealing 30 million roubles, now worth around $460,000, from two firms including an affiliate of French cosmetics company Yves Rocher.
    ($1 = 64,8337roubles)
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