Police broke into the office of an unregistered opposition candidate for the Moscow city council elections on Saturday, as tens of thousands of activists gathered to speak protest the hampering of opposition candidates in the September vote.
Lyubov Sobol, the only prominent candidate who has not been arrested for participating in previous unsanctioned rallies, was detained while she was addressing her supporters on social media.
“Police are here at our centre where we collect signatures. Police want to stop me from going to rally, but I’m not afraid, I’m not going to give up,” Sobol said on Twitter.
“I will continue my political work. They are going to break the door,” she said as the sounds of knocking and yelling are heard in the background.
Полиция <a href=”https://t.co/RTA4TqPbtZ”>https://t.co/RTA4TqPbtZ</a>
—@SobolLubov
Protesters gathered in central Moscow to protest against the exclusion of opposition and independent candidates from the city council ballot, the third consecutive weekend of rallies staged over the issue.
Organizers say they believe about 47,000 people were at the rally. A police estimate put the crowd at 20,000.
Saturday’s demonstration was sanctioned by city authorities, unlike the two previous protests in which thousands of people were detained, sometimes violently. Some opposition figures called on supporters to take part in an unsanctioned stroll in Moscow later on Saturday.