Moscow - Supporters of the Russian political opposition
conducted an unsanctioned protest march through central Moscow on
Saturday, a week before controversial elections.
The rally was the latest in a wave of weekend protests that erupted
last month after several opposition candidates were rejected from the
ballot for the September 8 city council elections.
More than 2,000 people have been detained at the protests. Police
have come under fire for their heavy-handed approach to the
demonstrations.
Saturday's demonstration began with a remarkably light police
presence.
"Russia will be free," protesters chanted as they marched
through Moscow's Boulevard Ring, a main thoroughfare across the city
centre.
Russia's top investigative agency had warned against attending
unsanctioned protests this week, saying: "A few hundred likes under a
photo and a couple minutes of glory on social networks is the price
for a destroyed life."
Saturday's protest was organized by the team surrounding opposition
politician Alexei Navalny, who was released from jail last week after
serving a 30-day sentence for breaking a law against holding
unsanctioned protests.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin had "taken away Muscovites' right to fair
elections," Navalny's team said on Facebook.
"Independent candidates have been placed under arrest. Peaceful
protesters are implicated in criminal cases," they wrote.
About 1,500 people openly indicated that they would attend the
protest.
Navalny is not currently running for office. He ran for mayor of
Moscow six years ago, garnering a quarter of the vote according to
official figures.
Sobyanin, endorsed by the ruling political party, won a razor-thin
majority at 51 per cent in that election. Navalny's supporters
accused the electoral authorities of vote-rigging.