Thousands of people took to the streets in Russia’s far eastern region on Saturday for the third week in a row to demand that the security services releases the region’s governor, Sergei Furgal.
The city of Khabarovsk, near the border with China, has become the center of anti-government demonstrations this month after security services arrested Furgal on July 9 on charges of crimes including attempted murder.
Estimates of the turnout varied greatly. Khabarovsk officials said 6,500 people attended. Pro-opposition social media channels placed the number much higher at around 90,000, while local media said around 20,000 people protested.
Authorities say at least 10,000 people took part in previous demonstrations on July 11 and July 18, though some local media and opposition figures put the figure at 35,000 to 50,000 people.
Supporters of Furgal, who is a member of the nationalist LDPR party, said that he is being belatedly punished for defeating a candidate from the ruling pro-Putin United Russia party in 2018, Reuters reported.
President Vladimir Putin officially fired Furgal on Monday and appointed a lawmaker from the same nationalist LDPR party, Mikhail Degtyarev, as his acting replacement. The move was met with by anger from Khabarovsk residents, who said the Degtyarev has no connection to the region.
The demonstrations have been some of the largest anti-Kremlin protests in Russia in recent years, which the government said this week were being fuelled by opposition activists outside the region.