Weeklong Khabarovsk Protests Culminate In Thousands-Strong Demonstration

Thousands of demonstrators took part in a nearly five-hour unsanctioned rally in the Far Eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk on July 18 to protest the arrest of a local governor. Estimates of the crowd size ranged from 15,000 to 50,000. Fifty-year-old Sergei Furgal was arrested in Khabarovsk on July 9, transferred to Moscow, and put in pretrial detention on charges of attempted murder and of ordering two murders in 2004-2005 -- accusations he denies and which his supporters insist are politically motivated. The continuing protests are a rare public show of defiance against Moscow.