Thousands of individuals took to the streets on Saturday in Russia's far eastern city of Khabarovsk to protest against President Vladimir Putin's handling of a regional political crisis and therefore the suspected poisoning of his most vocal critic.
"Putin, have some tea,"
protesters chanted as they marched on the city's main thoroughfare, during a
regard to the case of opposition politician Alexei Navalny who fell gravely ill
this month after drinking a cup of tea at an airport cafe.
Navalny, 44, was airlifted’ to Germany
last week after collapsing during a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of
Tomsk. He’s now during a medically-induced coma during a Berlin hospital.
Residents of Khabarovsk, about 6,110 km
(3,800 miles) east of Moscow, started holding weekly rallies after the July 9
detention of Sergei Furgal, the region's popular governor, over murder charges
he denies.
His supporters say the detention is
politically motivated. At the rally, they brandished posters denouncing
"repression" and "dictatorship" and demanded that Furgal be
released and allowed to return’ to the town.
Some also expressed solidarity with
opponents of Belarusian leader and long-time Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko
who are staging public protests for weeks over vote-rigging accusations within
the Aug.9 presidential election.
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