Russian Lawmakers Approve Plan to Relocate 1.6 Million Muscovites<br />By IVAN NECHEPURENKOJUNE 14, 2017<br />MOSCOW — At least 16 protesters were detained in front of the Russian Parliament building on Wednesday as legislators approved a plan<br />that could uproot up to 1.6 million Muscovites from their aging Soviet-era residences and move them into newly built apartments.<br />Nationwide, 1,721 people were detained on Monday, according to OVD-Info, an independent organization<br />that tracks arrests, during one of the most sweeping anti-government demonstrations since President Vladimir V. Putin came to power.<br />In a video message recorded and distributed on social media after the sentence, Mr. Navalny said he would spend the month reading, playing backgammon and sleeping,<br />but he urged supporters to continue fighting corruption.<br />Yulia Galyamina, the leader of the resettlement protests, was one of more than 850 people detained by<br />the Moscow police on Monday at a large anti-Kremlin rally on the city’s main Tverskaya thoroughfare.<br />The upper house of Parliament, the Federation Council, must approve the version of the plan passed Wednesday by the Duma, and Mr. Putin must sign it.<br />On May 14, thousands of Muscovites protested the plan,<br />and dozens picketed the lower house of Parliament, the Duma, every time it was debated, ultimately pushing the government to change some aspects of the law.
