All of the opposition candidates running in Moscow’s local elections have been placed under arrest or sentenced to jail over a mass protest that rocked Moscow on Saturday in an unprecedented act.
Nearly 1,400 demonstrators were detained, some violently, during Saturday’s rally to demand that opposition-minded candidates be allowed onto the ballot in Moscow's city council elections. Despite official warnings not to attend the unauthorized protest, thousands of people took to the streets to voice their discontent.
Eight opposition candidates have been arrested or sentenced to jail since the protest in one of the harshest crackdowns on Russia's opposition in several years.
The candidates have since called on supporters to gather for another demonstration this Saturday, though Moscow authorities have disputed the rally’s location with organizers.
Here’s an overview of the candidates who had been sentenced by mid-Tuesday, some of whom will be unable to attend the protests this Saturday:
Vladimir Milov, former deputy minister of energy and Navalny Live YouTube channel host who made a live broadcast from the protests on July 27. Arrested for 30 days.
Ivan Zhdanov, director of the Anti-Corruption Fund. Arrested for 15 days. On Friday, Zhdanov announced a hunger strike “as a last resort in his protest against being jailed.”
Ilya Yashin, municipal deputy. Sentenced for 12 days.
Dmitry Gudkov, ex-State Duma deputy. Arrested for 30 days.
Alexander Soloviev, ex-chairman of the pro-democracy movement Open Russia. Arrested for 8 days.
Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Fund. Was released at night.
Konstantin Jankauskas, municipal deputy. Arrested for 7 days.
Yulia Galyamina, municipal deputy. Arrested for 10 days.
Yashin, Gudkov, Zhdanov, Galyamina and Sobol had been detained before the protest began. Sobol and Zhdanov, who were released in the afternoon, were detained again soon after calling on protesters to regroup.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who isn't running for office, was jailed last Wednesday for 30 days for calling for Saturday's march.
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