Two Jailed For July 27 Moscow Rally

The Tver district court on September 3 sentenced Ivan Podkopayev and Danila Beglets -- both of whom had pleaded guilty -- to three years and two years in prison, respectively.

Verdicts and sentences for several other activists in the case are pending.

One of them, Yegor Zhukov, who was charged with taking part in mass disturbances, was additionally charged with public calls for extremist actions via the Internet.

Also on September 3, the Investigative Committee announced that charges of taking part in mass riots and assaulting law enforcement officers had been dropped against five activists -- Sergei Abanichev, Daniil Konon, Valery Kostenok, Vladislav Barabanov, and Dmitry Vasilyev.

Several sanctioned and unsanctioned rallies have taken place in Moscow since July 27 in which protesters have demanded that independent and opposition candidates be allowed to run in September 8 municipal elections.

Dozens of protesters have been fined or given jail sentences for organizing and participating in the unsanctioned rallies.

Several others were charged with taking part in "mass unrest" and allegedly assaulting police and are being kept in pretrial detention.

Based on reporting by Meduza, Interfax, and TASS