A number of disruptive protests against the disqualification of independent and opposition candidates for the Moscow City Duma elections have taken place in Moscow in recent weeks. In July, authorities barred 57 candidates from running for Moscow City Duma, including several prominent critics of the Kremlin-backed mayor. Authorities portrayed as this being mainly due to alleged problems meeting a requirement for supporting signatures. Authorities claimed that more than 10% of the 5,000 required signatures were invalid. The opposition demonstrations were triggered by this to disqualify these...