Russian city of Khabarovsk sees no protests for the first time in 116 days

For the first time in 116 days, Russia’s Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk hasn’t held a protest rally in support of jailed former governor Sergey Furgal. This is the first day without demonstrations since Furgal’s arrest on July 9, reports MBX Media. 

During the last solidarity protest on Monday, November 2, law enforcement officers dispersed the small rally, MBX Media notes.

“Yesterday [November 2] was the smallest march, during which traffic police arrested several people. I think that it was the ‘last straw’ for the Khabarovsk protests,” local journalist Andrey Pastukhov told MBX Media. 

Sergey Furgal was arrested on July 9, 2020, on charges of organizing multiple murders in the early 2000s. He was jailed in Moscow and dismissed from his post as governor not long afterwards. Furgal’s arrest sparked mass protests in Khabarovsk, demanding that he undergo an open trial in the region rather than in the Russian capital.

The largest demonstrations took place on Saturdays throughout July and August, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Khabarovsk. Regardless of the fact that these rallies were not authorized by the authorities, law enforcement usually refrained from making mass arrests. Riot police officers dispersed a demonstration for the first time on the 92nd day of protests.