Tens of thousands of people in the Russian city of Khabarovsk have turned out for a protest over the arrest of the region’s governor on charges of involvement in multiple murders.
Local media estimated that the rally on Saturday attracted between 15,000 and 50,000 people. Protests have taken place every day this week, typically drawing hundreds of people .
Last Saturday a crowd of up to 35,000 people reportedly rallied in the city centre. The protests are the largest ever to have taken place in Khabarovsk, a city of 590,000 people in the far east of Russia.
The governor, Sergei Furgal, was arrested two weeks ago and flown 3,800 miles to Moscow, where he was put in jail for two months. Russia’s Investigative Committee says he is suspected of involvement in several murders of businessmen in 2004 and 2005, before his political career began.
Furgal has denied the charges, which relate to his time as a businessman with interests ranging from imports of consumer goods to timber and metals.
Furgal, a member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic party, was elected governor in 2018. His unexpected victory reflected growing public frustration with Vladimir Putin’s policies and marked a painful setback for the main Kremlin party, United Russia.