A thousand people gathered in central Moscow on Sunday (July 14th) in central Moscow to demand "fair elections". They called for independent and opposition candidates to run in local elections scheduled for 8 September.
Unauthorized, the demonstration was organized by a group of candidates including allies of the opponent and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny.
Accused of falsifying their signatures
Target of their claims? The Electoral Commission, to which they reproach to intentionally block the candidacy of opponents and independents to the polls of September, on the pretext that part of the signatures of their supporters, required to be able to present themselves, were falsified .
According to the OVD-Info, an organization specializing in the monitoring of arrests, the police, present in number at the event, conducted only one arrest.
Shouting "it's our city!", The protesters symbolically knocked, each in their turn, at the massive doors of the Moscow City Hall, before going to the Electoral Commission buildings.
"All over Moscow, they are withdrawing independent candidates," said Ilia Iachine, an opponent present at the demonstration, before adding, "it is necessary that this mayor [Sergei Sobyanin, Editor's note] cynic and liar hear our voice."
"They steal the elections"
Ally with the opponent Alexei Navalny, Lioubov Sobol has meanwhile announced Saturday that she began a hunger strike. By this gesture, she intends to denounce the blocking of her candidacy because of accusations of falsification of signatures.
"They steal the elections, they steal our future," she said. "I will not surrender, I will fight to the end."
The previous local and regional elections were marked in the country by the significant decline of the ruling party, United Russia, against a backdrop of discontent caused by the stagnation of the standard of living and an unpopular raising of the retirement age.
The power had lost several regions, last year, for the benefit of communists and nationalists several regions.