Tens of thousands gathered on Saturday to protest the arrest of a Russian regional governor on an eighth consecutive day of riots against Putin.
Sergei Furgal, governor of the Khabarovsk region, was arrested on July 9 for allegedly helping to plan the killings of two businessmen and the attempted murder of a third 15 years ago, charges that protesters believe are politically motivated. Frugal beat a Putin-backed candidate for governor in 2018.
The protests come after a referendum earlier this month that allows Putin to remain in power for up to 16 more years.
The protests have become a rallying cry against constitutional change, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“My attitude towards Putin is extremely negative,” protester Mikhail Potapenkov, 27, an IT systems administrator, told the newspaper. “He took power [by changing the constitution] and therefore the country cannot develop. Without a constant change of power, there can be no development. ”
Residents of the region in the extreme east of Russia, near the Chinese border, are also angered by rising unemployment and poverty. In the first three months of this year, the average income of local workers was almost half that of Moscow workers.
“Of course, we are very concerned about the fate of [Furgal]We really like it, “protester Maria Sushkova, 27, told the Journal. But the protests have” become for the most part an occasion for increased discontent among citizens. “
In an interview with the Journal, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied any political reason for Furgal’s arrest.
“The investigation claims they have irrefutable evidence,” said Peskov. “Therefore, there is no [political] politics here. There is just a very serious charge. “
Furgal is accused of planning the killings of Yevgeny Zorya and Oleg Bulatov, and the attempted assassination of Alexander Smolsky, in 2004 and 2005 during a dispute over a reinforced concrete plant in which Furgal and Zorya had competing interests.
The killings were motivated by “Furgal and accomplices promoting their own business interests,” Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for the Russian Investigation Committee, told the Interfax news agency.
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