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Huge Pro-Opposition Crowd Turns Out in Moscow March
MOSCOW — An approved street protest on Saturday in Moscow against the banning of opposition candidates in a city election drew about 50,000 people, a crowd far larger than the few thousand who recently demonstrated in the Russian capital, where heavy-handed policing typically dampens turnout.
After protesters obtained a permit, they turned out in force for what was the largest demonstration in Moscow in years. The crowds were comparable in size to those who gathered in 2015 to mourn the murdered opposition leader Boris Y. Nemtsov and to demonstrations during the 2012 election year.
Along with a demand that opposition candidates be allowed on the ballot for City Council elections, protesters demanded Saturday that the authorities release those detained at past rallies. “Release! Release!” the crowd of protesters chanted at one point.
The 50,000 count came from a nongovernmental group; the police stopped issuing updates after the crowd surpassed 20,000. A rapper who goes by the stage name Oxxxymiron and a popular blogger had encouraged people to attend.
“I came because I want the Constitution to be observed in our country and for us to have the right to protest,” said Veronika Essen, 25, who is an environmental activist.
After the approved part of the rally wrapped up, some demonstrators continued marching toward a government building.
A group monitoring police arrests, OVD info, reported that by early evening the police had arrested 178 protesters in Moscow. Including other cities’ marches, 275 opposition protesters were detained throughout Russia on Saturday, it said.
The demonstrations broke out earlier this summer after the authorities banned opposition candidates from running in a City Council election in Moscow, ostensibly for faking signatures on their applications seeking candidacy.
Protesters say that President Vladimir V. Putin’s government was simply intent on nipping any opposition in the bud, even at a local level, and that the signatures were genuine.
During ensuing demonstrations, riot police officers with nightsticks beat hundreds of protesters and arrested more than 2,500 people, most of whom were quickly released. Some face lengthy prison sentences, and dozens of opposition leaders are now in jail.
A survey released last week by Levada Center, an independent polling group, showed that a third of Muscovites are opposed to the current mayor, Sergei S. Sobyanin, while another third support him and the rest have no opinion.
The Moscow city government has for years been pouring money into urban renewal projects such as sprucing up parks and resurfacing sidewalks. Some political analysts see the work as a Putin strategy to use oil revenues to appease the capital’s politically important middle class.
In addition to mass arrests, the authorities have turned to subtler tactics to curtail street protests.
The police have checked the draft status of young men attending protests, and reportedly detained more than a hundred for army service. Court bailiffs, who are responsible for collecting some debts in Russia, have checked detainees for overdue loans.
The city government has been sponsoring alternative street activities, including a barbecue festival on Saturday called Meat & Beat. Sakharov Avenue, the site of the protests, was packed, while the festival was deserted.
Sophia Kishkovsky contributed reporting.
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