About 40,000 people gathered in Moscow on Saturday to protest against the exclusion of opposition candidates in the September local elections, according to the NGO Compteur Blanc, which specializes in counting protesters. "At 15H, 40,000 people," the NGO said on its Facebook page, making this authorized event a success for the Russian opposition despite the absence of all its leaders, sentenced to short prison terms.
"Give us the right to vote"
Framed by a strong police presence, the rally started in the rain at 14H on Sakharov Avenue, near the center of the Russian capital, the only place for which the authorities agreed. At the official beginning of the demonstration, about 7,200 people were present according to the NGO Compteur Blanc, which counts the demonstrators. Quietly, they carried placards on which was written "Give us the right to vote" or "You lied to us enough" while others brandished Russian flags or portraits of activists arrested in previous events.
On July 20, for the last demonstration authorized by the local authorities, more than 20,000 people answered the call on Sakharov Avenue. Prohibited, the following two rallies resulted in 1,400 and 1,000 arrests, respectively, evidence of a crackdown on protest.
Many opponents arrested
This hardening is also reflected in the numerous searches targeting opponents or mere protesters, the opening of a "money laundering" investigation aimed at the organization of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the short-term imprisonment to which almost all his political allies have been condemned.
Among the leaders of the liberal opposition, only lawyer Liubov Sobol was still at liberty thanks to her child, Russian law prohibiting administrative detention sentences for women with young children. However, she was arrested before the demonstration after a search of the police in her country office. If the opposition is decimated, several personalities sometimes removed from politics have announced their intention to demonstrate, as Youtubeur Yuri Doud or one of the most popular rappers of Russia, Oxxxymoron. He appeared at the demonstration wearing a support t-shirt to imprisoned 21-year-old student Egor Zhukov.