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Russian Opposition Politician Yashin Detained In Moscow

RFE/RL December 28, 2017

Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin has been detained in Moscow days after staging a demonstration that authorities said was held without their permission.

Yashin wrote on Twitter that five police officers detained him near his home on December 28 and took him to a police station.

Yashin, the head of Moscow's Krasnoselsky municipal district, staged what he called a "Free Elections Day" festival in Moscow's Lermontov Park on December 24, despite a Moscow City Court decision banning the gathering.

Some 2,000 people attended the event to demand that Russia's March 18 presidential election be a free, fair, and competitive contest.

Moscow city authorities and local police declared the event illegal and questioned Yashin's parents on December 25 about his whereabouts.

Supporters of anticorruption activist and opposition politician Aleksei Navalny also organized rallies in 20 Russian cities on December 24, including Moscow.

Navalny has been campaigning for the presidency since December 2016. But election officials in June declared he is ineligible due to a financial-crimes conviction that he contends was baseless and politically motivated.

Presidential campaigning officially started in Russia on December 18.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is running for a fourth term. His high approval ratings and control over the levers of power make his victory a foregone conclusion in Russia, where government critics say election campaigns and results are manipulated by authorities.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-opposition-yashin -detained-moscow/28943976.html

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Russian Opposition Politician Yashin Detained In Moscow