JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russian Opposition Puts Putin Under Pressure in Moscow Election; The opposition alliance didn’t fare well elsewhere in Russia, but its leaders hail Moscow showing as a success” – Wall Street Journal/ Georgi Kantchev

“Candidates backed by Russia’s opposition won nearly half the seats up for grabs in Moscow’s city elections … building on a wave of protests … that exposed some of the frailties … in Putin ‘s closely controlled political machine, but failed to make significant inroads in local races elsewhere …. Sunday’s vote came after a tumultuous summer that saw a series of street protests snowball … [into] the largest outpouring of discontent in nearly a decade. … triggered by election authorities’ decision to exclude leading opposition figures from the city elections … morph[ing] into a broader protest movement providing Russians a platform to air grievances over political freedoms and falling incomes. … two years before national elections and in advance of the end of … Putin’s own six-year term in 2024, and at their peak [protests] drew as many as 50,000 people. …”

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