About 50,000 protestors took to the streets in Moscow to oppose the ban of opposition candidates in city elections, according to White Counter, a group tracking the protests. Protestors demanded for opposition candidates to be allowed in the City Council election ballot, and for the release of protestors who were detained in previous demonstrations. OVD-Info, a group that tracks arrests in Russia, reported that 178 protestors in Moscow had been detained by early Saturday evening, and 275 had been detained throughout Russia. The approved street protest turned into one of the largest Russia’s capital has seen in years. The New York Times reports that the size of Saturday’s protest was comparable to those who gathered in 2015 to mourn the murder of opposition leader Boris Y. Nemtsov, and demonstrations during the 2012 election. Last weekend, more than 800 demonstrators were detained in Moscow for protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates.
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