Thousands Rally in Moscow For Disqualified Opposition City-Council Candidates

Thousands of Moscow residents rallied on Sakharov Avenue, in the center of the Russian capital, on July 20 in support of barred opposition city-council candidates, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Prominent opposition leaders attended or promoted the rally. Among them was Alexei Navalny on Instagram said he had not been at a rally of that size since 2012, and said he was “very happy that tens of thousands of Muscovites did not remain silent, did not swallow the humiliation, but went out to protest”. RFE/RL reported that candidates seeking to run for Moscow city-council seats in September had to submit 4,500 verifiable signatures of support by July 6 to the election commission. The commission claimed that many of the signatures were invalid. Credit: Alexander Buznikov via Storyful