Sobyanin praises law enforcement agencies for preventing grave consequences of protests in Moscow
MOSCOW. Oct 28 (Interfax) - The Moscow law enforcement agencies prevented attempts to organize riots in the city, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
"Dozens of peaceful rallies take place in Moscow at which law enforcement agencies ensure full order; there are no problems with their organization. Nevertheless, a number of unauthorized rallies have been held, which caused serious problems in the streets of Moscow," Sobyanin said at a meeting on the prevention of violations of law on Monday.
"The fact that they did not have grave consequences such as those we see in other cities of the world is not an achievement of their organizers; they, on the contrary, wanted to escalate these events and take them to a critical point. It's an achievement of the law enforcement agencies, which ensured order in the streets of Moscow," he said.
Street riots have increased throughout the world in 2019, Sobyanin said.
"This year, we have seen an increase in street riots [...], we see the results of riots in Kyiv, on the Maidan. Essentially, the country [Ukraine] has been shaken by these consequences, economically, socially, and politically," Sobyanin said at the meeting.
Serious street riots, in which people were killed and injured, have taken place in Hong Kong, Paris, and Barcelona in 2019, he said.
Commenting on the work of the police and the Russian Guard in Moscow, Sobyanin said that, besides street rallies, law enforcement agencies ensured the security of many cultural events attended by millions of Muscovites and visitors to Moscow.
"I thank the police and the Russian Guard, who ensured proper order during these events," he said.