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About 20,000 people taking part in authorized rally in central Moscow - police

The rally has been authorized by the Moscow mayor’s office

MOSCOW, September 29. /TASS/. About 20,000 people have gathered in central Moscow’s Academician Sakharov Avenue for an authorized rally, a spokesman for the Moscow police department told TASS on Sunday.

"About 20,000 people are taking part in the authorized rally in Academician Sakharov Avenue," the spokesman said.

The rally has been authorized by the Moscow mayor’s office. According to a TASS correspondent, along with the opposition leaders, former detainees on similar charges are taking part.

Several criminal cases, referred to as the Moscow case, were launched after a series of opposition rallies in Moscow this summer. The most high-profile of them is a unified criminal investigation into mass disorders and the use of violence against law enforcement personnel during an unauthorized rally on July 27. Some 15 people were arrested and some of them have been sentenced.

On September 16, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court sentenced actor Pavel Ustinov to 3.5 years behind bars for using violence that endangered the health of a riot police officer. The investigation and the court came to the conclusion that during his detention, Ustinov had exercised active resistance to a National Guard officer, dislocating his shoulder. Ustinov pleaded not guilty, saying that he happened to be at the rally site by chance as he was going to have a business meeting in the area. On September 20, the Moscow City Court granted the prosecution’s request, releasing Ustinov from custody on his own recognizance. A prosecution official requested the court that Ustinov be handed a sentence other than imprisonment.