Leading up to the municipal elections in September in Russia, thousands of people from the country have taken to the streets of Moscow to protest the following issues about opposition candidates. The candidates that were going to run for the election got disqualified because they did not get enough signatures from the polls, according to the Russian authorities, CNN reported.
Over the weekend the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that at least 1,074 people were arrested during the protest, while the OVD-Info an organization in Russia who monitors every arrest during any mass protest across the country, claimed that 1,127 people were arrested.
Prior to the protest which commenced on Saturday, the riot police were already prepared in the Moscow City Hall, armed and ready to attack the protestors that were going to be seen on that day. The Moscow police department released a statement that 3,500 people were seen protesting on that day, and 700 of them were journalists and bloggers.
Alexei Navalny and Dmitry Gudkov
Alexei Navalny, Russian politician, lawyer and founder of the Anti- Corruption Foundation, who is also an opposition leader in Russia, was arrested for 30 days. He supposedly violated the country’s protest laws by encouraging a protest to happen on Saturday. In December last year, Russia passed a law bill that will impose a fine to protest organizers if they see that young people under the age of 18 are taking part in their demonstrations.
Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption activism managed to influence many of the younger generations in Russia, an older report from VOA news confirms.
Dmitry Gudkov, a Russian politician and opposition leader also got arrested hours before the protest that took place on Saturday. He voiced out his concern for the future of Russia, regarding the disqualification of opposition candidates in the country.
Gaining back order
The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin tweeted that he plans on getting peace and order back in the country with the help of the police. The police will be doing their duty in restoring back order back in the country, to protect the lives of the people living there.
Many Russians were not happy about the decision on the disqualification of the opposition candidates by the authorities, so they decided to protest on Saturday despite the circumstances following the prior arrest of Alexi.
The people went forward with the protest. Many Russian activists, political leaders, bloggers, and journalists decided to protest about this issue as well. They are protesting for their voices to be heard and are looking forward to a fair election in the country.
