KHABAROVSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2020) Some 50 people gathered for an unsanctioned rally in Russia's Khabarovsk on Monday to support arrested former Governor Sergey Furgal, braving rain and wind that hit the Far Eastern city, according to the mayor's office.
"Up to 50 people joined the march," the mayor's office told Sputnik, noting that the demonstrators had mulled abandoning the event.
Following the march, people returned to Lenin Square, where rallies are traditionally held. There, a dozen more people were waiting for them. Currently, the protesters are chanting slogans in support of Furgal. The rain stopped.
Furgal, a 50-year-old businessman-turned-politician from the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDPR) and the then-sitting Khabarovsk governor, was detained on July 9 for an alleged role in a string of killings in the 2000s. He is in pre-trial detention in Moscow and denies the charges. Rallies in support of Furgal have been held in the Khabarovsk Territory since July 11, drawing thousands of people, despite the coronavirus-linked ban on mass gatherings.
President Vladimir Putin dismissed Furgal on July 20, appointing 39-year-old lawmaker Mikhail Degtyarev, also a LDPR member, as acting governor of the Khabarovsk Territory.
