The Kremlin is set to replace a far-eastern governor of Russia accused of multiple killings, which could fuel a new round of public anger that has already sparked the largest protests in the region’s history.
Some 50,000 people took to the streets on Saturday in Khabarovsk, a city 6,100 miles east of Moscow, to demand the return of Sergei Furgal, a former scrap dealer accused of the murder of two commercial rivals and the attempted murder of a third party. . in 2004-05.
Until now, the police have largely avoided cracking down on unauthorized protests, which have attracted hundreds of supporters on weekdays and increased to tens of thousands on weekends. The Kremlin appears to expect the wave of protests to finally subside, particularly as new details emerge on the murder charges.
Vladimir Putin could name a new acting governor for the region as early as Monday, said Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a nationalist politician who is leading the liberal-democratic right-wing party, a symbolic opposition party. Zhirinovsky claimed in a radio appearance that he had been promised that the replacement would also be a member of his party, apparently as a concession.
The Kremlin has also signaled that it plans to move soon. On Friday, a spokesman said Putin had not chosen a new chief, but added that “the region cannot go without an acting chief for a long time.” Previously, the Kremlin had said that Putin could formally fire Furgal based on information uncovered by investigators.
Any replacement is unlikely to satisfy critics in Russia’s far east, where there have been eight days in a row of unprecedented protests against Furgal’s arrest. The protests have sparked bitter feelings of resentment towards Moscow in the remote and independent Khabarovsk Krai, which in a recent referendum produced one of the country’s lowest results and the least support for allowing Putin to run for president twice more.
Furgal, who made his fortune in the dangerous scrap metal business in the 2000s, is an unlikely popular hero. Investigators say they have witnesses and other evidence linking Furgal to the 15-year-old murders. Supporters say Furgal is innocent and that his crime was to anger the Kremlin by refusing to abandon a 2018 governor’s race in favor of Moscow’s preferred candidate from the ruling United Russia party.
Observers say any protest movement is unlikely to secure Furgal’s release, given the seriousness of the accusations against him.
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