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<h6 class="article__headline"><span style="color: #3b2e2e;"><strong>Russian cops arrested over one thousand protesters, chanting &#8220;Russia without Putin&#8221; and &#8220;Putin resign&#8221; and beat them with batons as furious crowds held anti-Putin demonstration in Moscow</strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="article__headline"><span style="color: #3b2e2e;"><strong><span class="article__media-span">Demonstrators decrying Putin&#8217;s grip on power were beaten and dragged away, d</span></strong></span><span style="color: #3b2e2e;"><strong><span class="article__media-span">ozens were seriously injured in today&#8217;s street clashes in the Russian capital</span></strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="article__headline"><span style="color: #3b2e2e;"><strong><span class="article__media-span">More than 1,127 people were forcibly detained by the authorities. according to monitors</span></strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="article__headline"><span style="color: #3b2e2e;"><strong><span class="article__media-span">The protest were against the exclusion of opposition candidates in local polls</span></strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="article__headline"><span style="color: #3b2e2e;"><strong><span class="article__media-span">Russian authorities labelled the planned protest illegal earlier this week</span></strong></span></h6>
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<h6><span class="article__media-span"><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323583" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/police-batter-protesters-in-Moscow-11.jpg" alt="police batter protesters in Moscow 11" width="644" height="392" />Police have detained more than 1,000 protesters at anti-Putin rally in the Russian capital of Moscow, in one of the biggest crackdowns in years</strong></span></h6>
<div><span style="color: var(--color-text);">Russian police saturday arrested more than 1,000 people in Moscow in one of the toughest crackdowns on anti-Putin protesters in years.</span></div>
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<div class="article__gallery-count">Demonstrators decrying the leader&#8217;s grip on power were beaten and dragged away to cells as security forces used batons to storm the crowds.<br />
Last Saturday, more than 20,000 Russians took to the streets, demanding fair elections, and dozens were arrested, during the new unauthorised rally on July 27<br />
According to police, about 3,500 people gathered for the latest protests, including about 700 journalists.<br />
Demonstrators were dragged away from the city hall as security forces used batons against the crowd.</div>
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<p>People were protesting against the exclusion of opposition candidates from local polls. The opposition say they were barred for political reasons.<br />
Some of the candidates banned from standing in the September 8 election had been detained earlier.<br />
Officials disqualified about 30 people, saying they had failed to collect enough valid signatures to stand.</p>
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<h6 class="article__content article__content--intro"><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323569" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Female-protester-is-dragged-away-by-a-security-officer-in-Moscow-1.jpg" alt="Female protester is dragged away by a security officer in Moscow 1.JPG" width="746" height="531" /><strong>Youth dissent: A young female protester is dragged away by a security officer in Moscow n Saturday</strong></span></h6>
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<p>Candidates were asked to collect 5,000 signatures to stand. This limit was made even harder to match because a signature &#8220;means volunteering one&#8217;s personal information for the government&#8217;s database of opposition supporters&#8221;, democracy activist Vladimir Kara-Murza wrote in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/22/protests-return-moscow-opposition-candidates-are-banned-crucial-election/?utm_term=.f2dbaed50711">Washington Post</a>.<br />
Many candidates managed to meet the threshold but the electoral commission ruled some signatures ineligible, saying they were unclear or the addresses provided were incomplete, and barred the candidates from taking part.<br />
Opposition groups say the authorities had no reason to rule them ineligible. Electoral officials denied the opposition claims of process malfeasance: &#8220;We have no reason to doubt our experts,&#8221; commission member Dmitry Reut reportedly, said.</p>
<h6><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323584" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Lyubov-Sobol-1.jpg" alt="Lyubov Sobol 1.JPG" width="674" height="363" /><strong>Lyubov Sobol one of the opposition candidates barred from standing, address opposition rally</strong></h6>
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<h6 class="article__content article__content--intro"><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323570" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/police-batter-protesters-in-Moscow-2.jpg" alt="police batter protesters in Moscow 2.JPG" width="656" height="421" /><strong>&#8220;Military&#8221; style tactics as reaching a &#8220;new low&#8221; &#8211; Baton-wielding riot cops clash with protesters in the Russian capital of Moscow on saturday July 27</strong></span></h6>
<p>Police wrestled with demonstrators around the mayor&#8217;s office, often charging into the crowd with their batons raised.<br />
Amnesty International described the security force&#8217;s &#8220;military&#8221; style tactics as reaching a &#8220;new low&#8221;.<br />
<span style="color: var(--color-text);">Natalia Zviagina, Director of Amnesty in Russia, said: &#8220;Russian authorities hit a new low by imposing military law-like security measures on the unsanctioned rally, blocking access to major Moscow streets and shutting down businesses.<br />
</span>“We demand that the Russian authorities conduct an immediate, full and effective investigation into these incidents and ensure that the victims of police violence gain retribution in competent courts.<br />
&#8220;All peaceful protesters must be immediately released; no one should be imprisoned for merely exercising their rights to expression and peaceful assembly.”</p>
<h6><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323572" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/police-batter-protesters-in-Moscow-3.jpg" alt="police batter protesters in Moscow 3" width="738" height="491" /><strong>&#8216;Protesters are security threat&#8217; &#8211; Moscow Mayor:</strong> <strong>Amnesty International accused Putin&#8217;s forces of using military law tactics</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323573" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/police-batter-protesters-in-Moscow-4.jpg" alt="police batter protesters in Moscow 4" width="661" height="915" /><strong>Bloodied face of opposition: Dozens were seriously injured in Saturday&#8217;s street clashes, as the people took to the streets<span style="color: var(--color-text);"> protesting against the exclusion of opposition candidates from local polls. </span></strong></span></h6>
<p>State news agencies Tass cited police as saying 1,074 were arrested over the course of the protests, which lasted more than seven hours. Monitors reported 1,127 detentions.<br />
Moscow&#8217;s Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has called the demonstration a &#8220;security threat&#8221;, and promised to maintain public order.<br />
Anger is widespread among opposition supporters at the way the city is run and the ruling United Russia party.<br />
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, was jailed for 30 days on Wednesday after calling for Saturday&#8217;s unapproved demonstration.<br />
<span style="color: var(--color-text);">People were protesting against the exclusion of opposition candidates from local polls. The opposition say they were barred for political reasons.<br />
</span>Authorities had declared it illegal and sought to block participation, but several thousand people turned up anyway in one of the longest and most determined protests of recent years.<br />
Chants of &#8220;Russia without Putin&#8221; and &#8220;Putin resign&#8221; echoed through central Moscow as guardsmen clad in riot gear beat back protesters.<br />
At least one woman and a man appeared to have suffered serious head wounds.<br />
Saturday&#8217;s events showed how activists and especially younger people remain intent on pressing to open Russia&#8217;s tightly-choreographed political system to competition.</p>
<h6><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323575" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/police-batter-protesters-in-Moscow-6.jpg" alt="police batter protesters in Moscow 6" width="662" height="473" /><strong>Chants of &#8220;Russia without Putin&#8221; and &#8220;Putin resign&#8221; echoed through central Moscow as guardsmen clad in riot gear beat back protesters. At the end of the seven-hour protests more than 1,000 people were forcibly detained by the authorities</strong><br />
</span></span></h6>
<p><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323574" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/police-batter-protesters-in-Moscow-5.jpg" alt="police batter protesters in Moscow 5" width="653" height="435" /><strong>Demonstrators against president Putin&#8217;s total grip on power were beaten and dragged away by police in Moscow on Saturday</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><br />
</span>Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny had called the protest to persuade officials to allow opposition-minded candidates to run in a September 8 vote.<br />
<span style="color: var(--color-text);">Authorities say they were barred because they failed to collect sufficient genuine signatures in their support.</span><br />
The opposition has no seats in parliament and is starved of air time on state TV where the main source of news for most Russians.<br />
Opinion polls in the past have shown support for Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, only in the single digits.<br />
But backers note he won almost a third of the vote in a 2013 Moscow mayoral race and say his movement could build momentum in the Russian capital if allowed to compete fairly.</p>
<h6><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone wp-image-323576" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/police-batter-protesters-in-Moscow-9.jpg" alt="police batter protesters in Moscow 9" width="738" height="499" /><strong>Riot police in Moscow used batons Saturday, as they crashed on the protest in support of the candidates barred from participation in the city parliament election. State news agencies Tass quoted official police reports that 1,074 were arrested </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span class="article__media-span"><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-323580" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/police-batter-protesters-in-Moscow-10.jpg" alt="police batter protesters in Moscow 10" width="651" height="424" />Chants of &#8216;Putin resign&#8217; echoed through central Moscow as protesters surged around the Mayor&#8217;s office on Saturday afternoon</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span class="article__media-span"><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-323579" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Detained-protester-is-seen-behind-the-window-of-a-police-bus.jpg" alt="Detained protester is seen behind the window of a police bus" width="863" height="558" />Caged: A detained political activist peers out from behind the barred window of a police bus in Moscow on Saturday</strong></span></h6>
<p>Though Putin&#8217;s approval rating is still high at well over 60 per cent, it is lower than it used to be due to discontent over years of falling incomes.<br />
Last year, the 66-year-old former KGB intelligence officer won a landslide re-election and a new six-year term until 2024.<br />
Burnishing his man of action image, Putin spent today diving to the bottom of the Gulf of Finland in a <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9597900/vladimir-putin-james-bond-impression-submarine/" rel="">mini-submarine to honour a Soviet sub</a> that sunk there in WWII.<br />
Under Russian law, the location and timing of such protests needs to be agreed with authorities beforehand, something that was not done for Saturday&#8217;s event.<br />
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a Putin ally, had warned beforehand that authorities would act decisively against the risk of &#8220;serious provocations&#8221;.<br />
The <span style="color: var(--color-text); font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;">wave of police searches and detention of opposition activists had one Russian paper writing that “political terror in Russia is flourishing” , warning that “one day the terror will rebound on those who started it”.<br />
</span></p>
<h6><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone wp-image-323581" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Protests-against-Putin-rule-in-Moscow-1.jpg" alt="Protests against Putin rule in Moscow 1.JPG" width="790" height="525" /><strong>Huge crowd link hands protesting against the exclusion of opposition candidates in local polls</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span class="article__media-span"><img class="alignnone wp-image-323582" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Protests-against-Putin-rule-in-Moscow-2.jpg" alt="Protests against Putin rule in Moscow 2.JPG" width="767" height="526" />Accused of <span style="color: var(--color-text);">using force to muzzle opposition &#8220;having failed to counter it with political means&#8221;, </span><strong>The Russian authorities push back at attendees of the planned protest, which authorities labelled illegal earlier this week</strong></span></h6>
<p><span style="color: var(--color-text);">Alexei Navalny, who addressed the crowds last Saturday, is not one of the candidates, although he stood in Moscow&#8217;s mayoral elections in 2013 and won 27% of the vote in a result he disputed.<br />
The head of the Central Election Commission of Russia, Ella Pamfilova, met with candidates for deputies of the Moscow City Duma, who were not allowed to participate in the elections due to a marriage in signatures.<br />
At the meeting, she stated that, for the CEC decision, rallies “had no value”, and it was impossible to register all independent candidates because of the law. <a class="story-body__link" href="https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-49081006">&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter, not even a bit of it,</a> she said, dismissing the demonstrations as &#8220;political&#8221;.</p>
<p></span></p>
<h6><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><img class="alignnone wp-image-323589" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Ella-Pamfilova-1.jpg" alt="Ella Pamfilova 1.JPG" width="748" height="540" /><strong>Head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, [photo], </strong></span><strong>dismissed the demonstrations as &#8220;political&#8221;<span style="color: var(--color-text);">. Protests would not change their decisions. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter, not even a bit of it, she said</span></strong></h6>
<p><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: var(--color-text);">The authorities banned this Saturday&#8217;s rally on the grounds that there were threats of violence against the commission.<br />
</span>Continuing the crackdown on opposition, police then </span><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;">raided</span><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;"> the homes of several opposition politicians</span><span style="color: var(--color-text); font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;">, and called them in for more questioning.<br />
</span><span style="color: var(--color-text);">Election candidate and opposition leader Dmitry Gudkov tweeted that the council had &#8220;died under Putin&#8221;.<br />
</span><span style="color: var(--color-text);">&#8220;The last illusion that we are able to participate legally in politics has disappeared.&#8221;<br />
</span><span style="color: var(--color-text);">Some newspapers also denounced the raids.<br />
Novaya Gazeta ran the headline Moscow City Terror on Friday, while Vedomosti said authorities were using force to suppress the protest &#8220;having failed to counter it with political means&#8221;.</span></p>
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Russian police crackdown on political opposition in Moscow, baton wielding cops confront furious, chanting crowds hold anti-Putin demonstration – More than 1,100 arrested
