Russia opposition leader detained amid vote standoff

Bloomberg

Russian police detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a standoff intensified over
the authorities’ decision to bar prominent anti-government candidates from September elections in Moscow.
Navalny has called for another major rally in front of the mayor’s office after he addressed the biggest protest in three years in the Russian capital on July 20, attended by more than 20,000 people according to independent monitors. The recent demonstration was authorised but the next one planned isn’t.
Navalny, 43, said officers took him away as he left his Moscow apartment building in jogging shorts, in a video from a police station posted on his Instagram account.
His spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, later tweeted that he was being charged with violating the law against appealing for people to attend unsanctioned demonstrations and could face up to 30 days in prison if convicted. Police declined to comment.
The confrontation over the municipal polls in Moscow comes as President Vladimir Putin grapples with plunging popular support amid a prolonged economic malaise that’s driven down real incomes for the past five years.
Scattered protests have broken out across the country over issues ranging from state workers’ wages to plans to expand trash dumps.
In rare about-faces, the authorities backed down earlier this year after major unrest provoked by plans to build a cathedral in a popular downtown park in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. In June they halted the prosecution of a Moscow investigative reporter on drug charges that were later dropped.

‘Serious Risk’
Putin, 66, has been in power for two decades, longer than any other Russian leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. He must step down in 2024 according to a constitutional ban on more than two consecutive mandates.
Though the president has vowed to observe this term limit, he’s looking for ways to keep effective control of Russia after that, according to people involved in the preparations.
The wave of unrest in Moscow is becoming “a serious risk for the Kremlin,” said
Tatiana Stanovaya, an independent political analyst. It “cannot be ignored politically,” she said.
The protests were sparked by the Moscow electoral commission’s move to bar about a dozen opposition candidates who had registered to compete in the polls for the 45-seat city assembly, saying the signatures they had collected were partly invalid.
The candidates reject those allegations and talks with the head of the Central Election Commission ended without a compromise.