Tag Archives: Protests

Venezuelan opposition to hold ‘mother of all marches’ against Maduro

FILE PHOTO: An opposition supporter waves a Venezuelan flag during a gathering against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela April 15, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Brian Ellsworth and Diego Oré

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition says it will stage the “mother of all marches” on Wednesday, accusing President Nicolas Maduro of resorting to dictatorial measures to quash popular outrage over a deepening economic crisis.

In the culmination of a fortnight of violent demonstrations that killed five people, marchers around the country will demand the government present a timeline for delayed elections, halt a security crackdown on protests, and respect the autonomy of the opposition-led legislature.

Maduro, who says recent protests have been little more than opposition efforts to foment violence and topple his government, has called on sympathizers of the ruling Socialist Party to hold a competing march in Caracas.

“This is a government in its terminal phase,” two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles told Reuters on Tuesday evening.

“This is going to escalate … and force Maduro, and his regime, to hold free and democratic elections.”

Venezuelans have for years been furious about a collapsing economy in which basic food products are a struggle to obtain and triple-digit inflation is steadily eroding consumer spending power.

But a Supreme Court decision in March to assume the powers of the opposition-led Congress sparked a wave of protests that have not ebbed, even though the court has partly reversed the measure in the face of international condemnation.

Further spurring outrage was a decision by the national comptroller’s office earlier this month to disqualify Capriles from holding office for 15 years, dashing his hopes for the presidency.

The elections council, which is sympathetic to the government, has delayed votes for state governors which were supposed to take place last year. The opposition says this is because the ruling Socialist Party is likely to fare poorly in such a vote.

“QUICK SOLUTION”

Eleven Latin American countries issued a joint statement this week calling on authorities to set a time frame for elections to “allow for a quick solution to the crisis that Venezuela is living through.”

Marches have repeatedly ended in clashes between demonstrators and security forces, with rock-throwing youths squaring off against tear-gas-lobbing security forces in confused melees that drag on well into the evening.

The opposition will congregate at more than two dozen meeting points around Caracas and attempt to converge on the office of the state ombudsman, a guarantor of human rights.

Previous efforts to march there have been blocked by the National Guard, resulting in clashes. As has become common in recent weeks on protest days, Venezuelan authorities will close 27 metro stations and likely set up checkpoints to slow entry to the city.

Socialist Party officials dismiss the opposition marches as efforts to destabilize the government, pointing to protester barricades and vandalism, and have called on supporters to rally around Maduro.

“The great Chavista mobilization toward Caracas has begun,” wrote Socialist Party Vice President Diosdado Cabello on Twitter, referring to late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

“Let’s all go conquer the peace, defend the fatherland, the constitution, the revolution.”

But pro-government marches no longer have the fervor or numbers of those of Maduro’s predecessor. Opposition leaders also accuse the government of infiltrating marches with violent protesters as a way of discrediting them.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Girish Gupta, Christian Plumb and Lisa Shumaker)

Protesters to take to streets to demand Trump release tax returns

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) arrives to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, U.S., before traveling to Palm Beach, Florida for the Good Friday holiday and Easter weekend, April 13, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

By Peter Szekely

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets across the United States and beyond on Saturday to press President Donald Trump to release his tax returns and to dispute his claim that the public does not care about the issue.

The demonstrations, organized by a loose coalition of labor and left-leaning groups with various economic agendas, are intended to focus on Trump’s refusal to disclose his tax-paying history, something his predecessors in the White House have done for more than 40 years.

“When we check in with our members, this is something they care about deeply,” said Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org, a progressive political group.

Critics have raised questions about what Trump’s tax returns say about his net worth and about his various business ties.

Organizers of “Tax March” are planning events in more than 150 cities, including New York, Washington and Los Angeles, as well as cities in Europe, Japan and New Zealand.

As a candidate and as president, Trump has steadfastly refused to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service. In September, he told ABC News, “I don’t think anybody cares, except some members of the press.”

The IRS has said that Trump can release his tax returns even while under audit.

The demonstrations are taking place on the traditional April 15 Tax Day, the deadline for filing federal tax returns, although the IRS this year pushed back the deadline by three days.

The Trump tax marches were launched by a single tweet, organizers said.

A day after the massive Jan. 21 women’s march in Washington and other cities, comedy writer Frank Lesser tapped out on Twitter, “Trump claims no one cares about his taxes. The next mass protest should be on Tax Day to prove him wrong.” It has been retweeted more than 21,000 times.

Organizers said they stuck with the traditional April 15 Tax Day for the marches because as a Saturday it would draw more attendance, even though this year’s income tax filing deadline was pushed back to Tuesday.

Joe Dinkin, spokesman for the Working Families Party, which is also planning the marches, said ongoing investigations into the Trump campaign’s connections with Russia underscore the need to disclose his returns.

“Without seeing his taxes we’ll never really know who he’s working for,” said Dinkin, who expects the marches to draw at least 100,000 protesters.

There have been some glimpses into Trump’s tax history. Last month, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow released two pages of Trump’s 2005 return that were obtained by investigative reporter David Cay Johnston. They showed Trump paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income. And last October, The New York Times reported that Trump had declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 federal tax return, citing three pages of documents from the return.

In a Quinnipiac University poll released on April 4, more than two-thirds of the respondents said Trump should publicly release his tax returns. Other recent polls had similar results.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely; Editing by Frank McGurty and Leslie Adler)

New York police arrest 25 at immigration protest in Trump Tower

A New York City Police officer (NYPD) escorts protestors after making arrests for demonstrating in Trump Tower in New York, U.S., April 13, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York police on Thursday arrested 25 people in the lobby of Trump Tower protesting U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration and border policies.

The demonstrators who sat in front of the elevators and chanted “no ban, no raids, no wall!” led security forces to close public accesses to the president’s signature property, a commercial and residential skyscraper where first lady Melania Trump and son Barron Trump stay while the president is in Washington.

As heavily armed police wearing ballistic vests stood guard blocking the entrances, other officers carried the protesters to police vans.

The building in the heart of the Fifth Avenue shopping district was also home to Trump’s campaign and has been his primary residence for years. The lobby is open to the public, though security was tightened as the 2016 campaign progressed and he was elected president.

Charges were pending, a police said in a statement.

The demonstrators wore T-shirts with slogans such as “No wall,” in reference to Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico, and “No raids,” referring to U.S. arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants.

“No ban” refers to Trump’s executive orders seeking to restrict immigration from several Muslim-majority countries.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Venezuela opposition plans nationwide protests to strain security forces

Demonstrators rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro carrying a sign that reads "No more dictatorship" in Caracas, Venezuela, April 13, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Alexandra Ulmer

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition was planning protests in each of the country’s 335 municipalities on Thursday, in a bid to strain the capabilities of security forces as unrest mounted in the volatile nation.

The oil-rich but crisis-shaken South American country has been convulsed by escalating protests over the last two weeks amid a punishing economic recession and accusations that leftist President Nicolas Maduro has morphed into a dictator.

In a worrying sign for Maduro, people in usually pro-government slums and low-income areas have blocked streets and lit fires during scattered protests this week. A crowd also broke through a security cordon at his rally on Tuesday, heckling at him and throwing stones while bodyguards scrambled.

Four people were killed during protests over the last week, authorities say. Opposition lawmaker Alfonso Marquina said on Thursday a fifth protester had died.

With momentum on their side, the main opposition coalition was urging Venezuelans to take to the streets across the country on Thursday in an effort to leave security forces too thinly spread to break up rallies.

They accuse police and the National Guard of indiscriminate use of tear gas, including gassing clinics and dropping canisters from a helicopter, and of arbitrarily detaining people for simply being within the vicinity of protests.

“This is a struggle of resistance, whose fundamental objective is to wear them out, and see who breaks first,” said opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara in a video posted on Twitter.

“Will it be our desire to fight or theirs to repress? Will it be our desire to have a better Venezuela or theirs to obey the dictatorship?”

The opposition says Maduro made it clear to the world he was a dictator when the Supreme Court in late March assumed the functions of the opposition-led congress.

Amid global outcry, the court quickly rolled back the most controversial part of its decision, but the move breathed new life into the fractured opposition movement and comforted demonstrators that they had international support.

Last week’s move to ban opposition leader Henrique Capriles from holding office for 15 years also fueled demonstrators’ outrage. Capriles is seen as the opposition’s best presidential hope.

UNREST

Alongside planned opposition marches that have dissolved into clashes, there have also been what witnesses and local media describe as impromptu nighttime protests, where neighbors block streets with trash or burning debris.

Looting has been reported too, especially in the working class community of Guarenas outside Caracas.

While opposition leaders have called for protests to remain peaceful, Maduro’s government has claimed that a business-backed opposition is actually pushing for violence to justify “foreign intervention.”

Maduro has drawn parallels with a brief coup against his predecessor – the late Hugo Chavez – in 2002, and warned that an opposition government would slash social benefits like health care for the poor and subsidized food.

The opposition has responded that any social advances made under Chavez have been wiped out by a devastating economic crisis that has brought widespread shortages of food and medicine.

Some in the opposition accuse “colectivos,” militant grassroots groups whom critics say are thugs paid by the government, of looting and violence to taint the opposition.

Many Venezuelans still worry protracted protests will not bring about political or economic change, but will just increase violence in the already volatile nation.

Major anti-government protests in 2014 eventually fizzled out, though the opposition at the time had nebulous demands, poor neighborhoods largely abstained, and the economy was in better shape.

Venezuelans are gearing up for next Wednesday, when opposition leaders have called for the “mother of all marches.”

(Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Venezuelan opposition protests again amid sustained anti-Maduro demonstrations

Demonstrators build a fire barricade on a street in Caracas, Venezuela

By Eyanir Chinea and Alexandra Ulmer

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition supporters took to the streets again on Monday to protest a grinding economic crisis and an erosion of democracy under leftist President Nicolas Maduro, in the first sustained wave of anti-government demonstrations in three years.

Venezuelans have been irate for months over shortages of basic goods and roaring inflation that have led to millions skipping meals or surviving on starches.

But demonstrations had ebbed amid protester fatigue, until a Supreme Court decision in late March to assume the functions of the opposition-led congress sparked outcry.

The court quickly overturned the most controversial part of its decision but the move triggered condemnation at home and abroad, as did Friday’s news that the national comptroller had banned politician Henrique Capriles – seen as the opposition’s best hope in a presidential election scheduled for next year – from office for 15 years.

Four nationwide protests in the last 10 days degenerated into clashes between youths throwing stones and security forces spraying crowds with tear gas. On Monday, there were protests in several cities. A few thousand people marched in Caracas but authorities blocked the highway and fired tear gas.

“It’s working, the government is scared and making mistakes like banning Capriles, because that generates more support for him,” said homemaker Imelda Guerrero, 66, who said her three children have emigrated due to the crisis.

“But this is will be a long struggle, it’s only just starting,” she added in Caracas.

The opposition is demanding a date for gubernatorial elections, meant to be held last year, and is seeking early presidential elections.

Despite the surge in protests, many Venezuelans are pessimistic that marches can bring about change, scared of violent clashes, or simply too busy trying to find food.

ARRESTS, FOREIGN PRESSURE

Maduro’s unpopular government accuses the opposition of fomenting violence to lay the ground for a foreign invasion.

Some 188 protesters, most of them students, were arrested in the period April 4-8 and 57 are still behind bars, rights group Penal Forum said on Monday.

Nine people, including two teenagers, were arrested for breaking into an office of the Supreme Court and vandalizing it at the end of Saturday’s march. And a 19-year-old was shot dead in violence around protests on Thursday.

The government has come under increased pressure from American and European countries that have condemned violence in Venezuela and the ban on Capriles.

Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader who accuses foreign countries of “meddling,” traveled to communist ally Cuba on Sunday for a meeting of the leftist ALBA bloc.

“The lazy one has gone to Cuba on holiday, he would do the country a favor by staying there,” Capriles jabbed at him on Twitter.

(Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Venezuela’s opposition censures judges; 18 held after protests

Demonstrators scuffle with security forces during an opposition rally in Caracas, Venezuela. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Andrew Cawthorne and Corina Pons

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition lawmakers, some carrying injuries from this week’s protests, on Wednesday sought the dismissal of Supreme Court judges whom they accuse of propping up a socialist dictatorship.

Newly militant opposition leaders also announced another round of demonstrations against President Nicolas Maduro for Thursday, despite chaos and violence in Caracas on Tuesday that left 20 injured and 18 arrested.

The opposition, which won control of the National Assembly in late 2015, accuses Maduro of wrecking the South American nation’s economy and squashing democracy.

Maduro says his foes are seeking a coup with the help of Washington and compliant foreign media.

The opposition’s main demand now is to bring forward the next presidential election scheduled for the end of 2018.

But there is no sign authorities will concede, analysts and diplomats say, unless foreign pressure ramps up considerably or Venezuela’s powerful military sways the equation.

The political drama is playing out against the backdrop of a deep economic crisis, with Venezuelans suffering a fourth year of recession, widespread shortages of basic foods and medicines, the world’s worst inflation, and long lines at supermarkets.

Having been impeded from reaching the National Assembly on Tuesday, lawmakers headed to the building in downtown Caracas from dawn on Wednesday, some still nursing head wounds or bandaged arms from clashes in recent days.

“We are going to keep fighting for change, opposing repression and dictatorship,” lawmaker Juan Requesens, who had a gash on his head, said at 6:30 a.m. while en route to the session.

Often at the forefront of provocative demonstrations, Requesens received more than 50 stitches after being hit by a stone when pro-government supporters confronted protesters at the public ombudsman’s office earlier this week.

ARRESTS AND INJURIES

The Caracas-based Penal Forum rights group said 18 people were still behind bars on Wednesday after detentions around the country, but mostly in Caracas. At least 20 people were injured on Tuesday, its head, Alfredo Romero, told Reuters.

There was particular outcry over a musician caught and slapped by police with riot shields while apparently on his way to practice, according to a video of the incident. State ombudsman Tarek Saab called for a probe into the “brutal aggression.”

The head of the hemispheric Organization of American States and global rights group Amnesty International both condemned Venezuela for excessive repression.

But Interior Minister Nestor Reverol denied that, calling instead for one opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, to be prosecuted for blocking streets, including impeding an ambulance.

“The exemplary behavior, capacity and training of our citizens’ security organs prevented the unpredictable consequences of these terrorist groups,” Reverol added.

The oil-producing nation’s political standoff took a new twist last week when the Supreme Court ruled that it was taking over the legislature’s functions.

That touched off an international outcry, and the tribunal quickly scrubbed the offending clauses.

But dozens of previous rulings overturning National Assembly measures have left it powerless anyway, and opposition leaders say recent events have shown the world Maduro’s autocratic face.

Lawmakers passed one motion on Wednesday denouncing the “rupture” of Venezuela’s constitution and another asking for the removal of Supreme Court judges.

But that would be merely symbolic since congress requires the support of other institutions, which are behind Maduro, to dismiss the judges.

“Stop being ridiculous; you’re carrying out a parliamentary ‘coup,'” said Socialist Party lawmaker Hector Rodriguez, accusing opposition leaders of caring less about Venezuelans’ problems than their own competing presidential ambitions.

(Additional reporting by Andreina Aponte; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Alistair Bell and Lisa Von Ahn)

Russia blocks access to Internet pages promoting new Moscow protest

FILE PHOTO: Riot police officers detain an opposition supporter during a rally in Moscow, Russia March 26, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has blocked access to several Internet pages promoting what the authorities say is a planned illegal anti-government protest in or near Moscow’s Red Square on Sunday.

The planned demonstration would take place a year before a presidential election and a week after the biggest anti-government protests in years ended in hundreds of arrests, including that of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Sunday’s organizers describe themselves online as “young people and ordinary students from Moscow” and say they have nothing to do with Navalny, who is serving out a 15-day jail sentence for his role organizing the March 26 protests.

As of Friday afternoon, around 2,000 people had signed up online to attend the student protest, which in the authorities’ eyes is illegal because its organizers did not seek permission beforehand or agree the venue and timing with them.

A copy of what appeared to be an authentic letter from the prosecutor general’s office to the country’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, was leaked online on Friday asking for access to five Internet pages to be blocked, saying they amounted to calls for “mass disorder” and “extremist activity”.

Three of those five pages were blocked on Friday afternoon.

The prosecutor general’s office was not immediately available for comment, but its press service confirmed to the TASS news agency it had asked for access to several pages to be blocked because they were advocating illegal protests in Moscow and “in large cities” on April 2.

Roskomdadzor was not immediately available to comment.

President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to run for what would be a fourth term next year, spoke out against the protests on Thursday, saying that anyone who broke the law should be punished.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn and Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Jack Stubbs)

Face of anti-Kremlin protests is the son of a Putin ally

A riot police officer climbs on a lamp pole to detain opposition supporters during a rally in Moscow, Russia March 26, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

By Maria Tsvetkova and Maria Vasilyeva

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian high school student Roman Shingarkin had some explaining to do when he got home after becoming one of the faces of anti-Kremlin protests at the weekend. His father is a former member of parliament who supports President Vladimir Putin.

At the height of a protest in Moscow on Sunday against what organizers said was official corruption, 17-year-old Shingarkin and another young man climbed onto the top of a lamp-post in the city’s Pushkin Square.

Hundreds of protesters in the square cheered and whistled as a police officer, dressed in riot gear, shinned up the lamp-post and remonstrated with the two to come down. They refused, and the police officer retreated, to jubilation from the protesters down below.

As images of the protests, the biggest in Russia for several years, ricocheted around social media, Shingarkin’s sit-in on top of the lamp-post was adopted by Kremlin opponents as a David-and-Goliath style symbol of defiance.

Shingarkin was eventually detained when, after the protest in Pushkin Square had dispersed, police persuaded him to climb down. He was taken to a police station but as a minor, he could not be charged. From the police station, he had to ring his father to ask to be picked up.

His father, Maxim Shingarkin, was from 2011 until 2016 a lawmaker in the State Duma, or lower house of parliament. He was a member of the LDPR party, a nationalist group that on nearly all major issues backs Putin.

Putin last year gave the party’s leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a medal for services to Russia. With Putin standing next to him, Zhirinovsky proclaimed: “God protect the tsar.”

Shingarkin had not told his father he would be going to the protest, but the former lawmaker quickly guessed what had happened.

“When I rang my dad from the police station, he immediately understood why I was there,” Shingarkin, wearing the same blue and black coat he had on during the protest, said in an interview with Reuters TV.

“I went there (to the rally) out of interest to see how strong the opposition is, how many people would take to the streets, and at the same time to get a response from authorities to a clear fact of corruption.”

He decided to climb up the lamp-post because he “could see nothing from the ground”.

Contacted by telephone on Wednesday, Shingarkin senior said he was sympathetic with his son’s motives for attending the protest.

“He has a social position, against corruption, I support it completely,” Maxim Shingarkin said.

But he emphasized that his son’s actions did not mean that he or the family were opponents of Putin.

The Russian leader, Shingarkin senior said, is popular among voters and there is no one to replace him, but he is let down by the officials around him.

Roman Shingarkin said for now he would not attend any more protests unless they were approved by the authorities.

He said he might venture to a non-approved demonstration once he turns 18, because if he gets into trouble then, the police will charge him and not involve his parents.

(Writing by Maria Tsvetkova and Christian Lowe; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Generation born under Putin finds its voice in Russian protests

FILE PHOTO: Riot police officers detain an opposition supporter during a rally in Moscow, Russia March 26, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

By Denis Pinchuk and Svetlana Reiter

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Protests across Russia on Sunday marked the coming of age of a new adversary for the Kremlin: a generation of young people driven not by the need for stability that preoccupies their parents but by a yearning for change.

Thousands of people took to the streets across Russia, with hundreds arrested. Many were teenagers who cannot remember a time before Vladimir Putin took power 17 years ago.

“I’ve lived all my life under Putin,” said Matvei, a 17-year-old from Moscow, who said he came close to being detained at the protest on Sunday, but managed to run from the police.

“We need to move forward, not constantly refer to the past.”

A year before Putin is expected to seek a fourth term, the protests were the biggest since the last presidential election in 2012.

The driving force behind the protests was Alexei Navalny, a 40-year-old anti-corruption campaigner who uses the Internet to spread his message, bypassing the state-controlled television stations where nearly all older Russians get their news.

“None of my peers watches television and they don’t trust it,” said Maxim, an 18-year-old from St Petersburg who took part in a protest there.

He said messages about the demonstration were shared among his friends via a group chat on a messaging app: “Half the group went to the demonstration.”

Navalny, who was arrested at one of Sunday’s protests, tailors his message for YouTube and VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook.

One of his recent videos, a 50 minute expose accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of secretly owning an archipelago of luxury homes, has been watched more than 14 million times on YouTube. Medvedev’s spokeswoman called the allegations “propagandistic attacks” unworthy of detailed comment and said they amounted to pre-election posturing by Navalny.

While older Russians may have turned a blind eye to official corruption during years when living standards improved, younger Russians speak of it in terms of moral outrage.

“Why do I believe that what is happening right now is wrong? Because when I was little, my mum read fairy tales to me, and they said you should not steal, you should not lie, you should not kill,” said Katya, a 17-year-old who was at the protest in Moscow. “What I see happening now, you should not do,” she said.

Like other students who spoke to Reuters at the demonstrations, Katya, Maxim and Matvei asked that their surnames not be published to avoid repercussions.

SOCIAL CONTRACT

Young people actively seeking change represent a new challenge for the Kremlin. It has built and maintained support for Putin for years by focusing mainly on ensuring stability, which Russians sought after the chaos of the immediate post-Soviet years.

Putin came to power after the 1990s, when the Soviet Union disintegrated and millions found themselves destitute. But young people who do not remember those times have different priorities than those even a few years older, said Yekaterina Schulmann, a political analyst.

“Our political regime is fixated on what it calls stability, that is a lack of change,” she said. “The political machine believes the best offer it can make to society is ‘Let’s keep everything the way it is for as long as possible’.”

“Young people need a model of the future, clear prospects, rules of the game which they recognize as fair, and … a social leg-up. Not only do they not see any of that, no one is even talking about it,” said Schulmann.

According to user data compiled from a social media page for people who said they planned to attend Sunday’s protest in St Petersburg, more than one in six were aged under 21.

It is still too early to say whether the new phenomenon will emerge as a serious challenge to Putin’s rule. It could be a burst of youthful idealism that fizzles out.

In any case, opinion polls show that Putin will win comfortably if, as most people expect, he runs for president next year.

His most serious rival for the presidency, Navalny, trails far behind in polls and could be barred from running because of an old criminal conviction which he says is political.

Still, the involvement of so many young people has forced the Russian authorities to pay attention.

A Kremlin spokesman said youngsters had been offered money by protest organizers to show up. The Kremlin offered no evidence to support this allegation, and none of the young people who spoke to Reuters said they had been offered payment.

Several students said school and university authorities had warned them before the protests they could be punished for taking part.

Pavel, a 20-year-old studying to be a veterinarian who attended a protest in Moscow, said it was worth it to risk some of Russia’s stability in the hope of change.

“Yes, maybe it will be negative; yes, maybe there won’t be the stability that we have now. But for a person in the 21st century it’s shameful to live in the kind of stability we have now.”

(Additional reporting by Natalia Shurmina in Yekaterinburg, Russia; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Peter Graff)

South Korea to hold election May 9, prosecutors summon ousted Park

South Korea's ousted leader Park Geun-hye greets her supporters as she arrives at her private home in Seoul, South Korea, March 12, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

By Christine Kim and Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea said on Wednesday it will hold an election on May 9 to choose a successor for former President Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office in a historic court ruling last week over a widening corruption scandal.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday Park – the first democratically elected president to be removed from office in South Korea – would be summoned for questioning on Tuesday into the influence-peddling scandal.

The Constitutional Court dismissed Park from office on Friday when it upheld a parliamentary impeachment vote in December.

Park has denied any wrongdoing.

The Samsung Group [SAGR.UL], South Korea’s largest conglomerate, is already embroiled in the scandal and the Yonhap news agency said prosecutors had started investigating two other conglomerates – the Lotte Group and SK Group.

Samsung denies any wrongdoing. Spokesman for both the SK Group and Lotte said they would cooperate with the investigation.

The turmoil comes at a time of rising tension with North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs, and with China over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea that China sees as a threat to its security.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit South Korea, as well as Japan and China, this week.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who has been acting president since the impeachment vote, said he would not run in the election.

Minister of the Interior Hong Yun-sik promised the vote would be the most clean and transparent ever.

“This election is unprecedented in our history,” Hong told a briefing, referring to the short campaign period.

Hwang had emerged in opinion polls as a top conservative candidate even though he had not declared an intention to run.

The scandal has undermined support for the ruling conservatives, and Hwang’s decision would appear to bolster the chances of a prominent liberal, Moon Jae-in, who is leading in opinion polls.

‘FIND TRUTH’

Park was summoned to appear for questioning at 9.30 a.m. (0030 GMT) next Tuesday, the prosecutors’ office said.

Her lawyers said in a statement they would cooperate.

“The lawyers will cooperate with the investigation to find substantive truth swiftly by actively helping with various procedures,” they said.

Park had declined to be questioned by prosecutors or testify at the Constitutional Court when she was in office.

After she left the presidential Blue House on Sunday, she issued a statement hinting of defiance, saying: “It will take time, but I believe the truth will be revealed.”

Prosecutors have not said how long they think their investigation would last.

A special prosecution team had accused Park of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, to pressure big businesses into contributing to foundations set up to support her policies and allowing Choi to influence state affairs.

Choi also denied wrongdoing.

Jay Y. Lee, the head of Samsung Group, is on trial on bribery, embezzlement and other charges in connection with the scandal. Lee denies all charges.

The prospect of an opposition election victory has raised questions about the future in South Korea of the U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, which China opposes because it says its radar can penetrate its territory.

Tillerson will meet Hwang and Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se in Seoul on Friday. He is not scheduled to see opposition figures, a U.S. State Department official said, raising questions about the durability of any agreements.

The aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson is in South Korean waters this week for exercises with South Korean forces.

North Korea said the exercises were part of a “reckless scheme” to attack it and it warned the United States of “merciless” strikes if the carrier infringed on its sovereignty or dignity.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Se Young Lee, Hyunjoo Jin; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Bill Tarrant)