Tensions were building in Moscow on Friday as law enforcers warned citizens to stay away from an unauthorised opposition rally in the Russian capital this weekend or face official reprisals.
Russian opposition activists are calling for a massive demonstration outside the Moscow mayor’s office to demand free and fair elections. They’re betting that thousands will turn out on Saturday afternoon to protest against the exclusion of anti-Kremlin candidates from an upcoming election at the Moscow City Duma, or parliament.
Election officials have refused to register at least 20 opposition-minded candidates for the September 8th poll on grounds that some of the thousands of voter signatures they collected to qualify for the ballot were forged, misspelled or belonged to people who did not exist.
Similar tactics have been used before to keep unwelcome candidates away from elections without causing any scandal. But the authorities appear to have underestimated the protest mood in Moscow where voters, frustrated by falling living standards and official corruption, are becoming increasingly politicised.
Police have hardly interfered as disappointed candidates staged demonstrations in the city on an almost daily basis over the past three weeks.
Crack down
Russian opposition leaders emboldened by the huge turnout at a rally last weekend have seized the moment to call for yet larger protests to force the authorities to back down on the election.
Law enforcers have cracked down. The first to suffer was Alexei Navalny, Russia's most charismatic opposition leader, who was arrested on Wednesday and sentenced to 30 days in jail for calling people out to an unsanctioned meeting. That night police raided the homes of several of Mr Navalny's allies, carrying off their computers and telephones.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has ratcheted up pressure, calling in some 15 opposition activists for questioning in connection with a criminal investigation. Several activists say they are bewildered by the case that refers to vague allegations that they have interfered in the work of the election authorities.
Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for Mr Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, was refusing to be interrogated on Friday hours after police forced her to end a sit-in at the Moscow Election Commission, by carrying her off the premises on a sofa.
Moscow’s prosecutor warned on Friday that both organisers and participants in this weekend’s protest would be called to account for breaching Russian demonstration laws. “The place chosen by organisers to hold the public meeting [outside the Mayor’s office] does not allow for the security of participants to be guaranteed,” the prosecutor said in a statement.
Most Russian political analysts agree that the Kremlin wants an immediate end to the protests and will sanction merciless police action.
“The Moscow protests are entirely political and for the Kremlin . . . any political concession is a sign of weakness,” Andrey Pertsev, a political commentator at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, wrote this week.