site.btaRally in Downtown Sofia Calls for Free, Democratic Russia

Citizens held a rally in downtown Sofia on Sunday evening to call for a free and democratic Russia. The rally, mottoed "Putin Is a Murderer", was on the occasion of three years since the attempted poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny. 

The rally was organized by the For Free Russia association of Russian immigrants in Bulgaria and is part of global rallies held in other countries. In Bulgaria, such rallies were also held in the coastal cities of Varna and Burgas.

Irina from Moscow, one of the Sofia rally's organizers, said: "Rallies against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin are being held around the world in this moment, because we want to say again that he is a very scary person and people should not believe his propaganda."

Russia-born Vlad, a participant in the rally, said that the rally's motto is related to how it began from the murder of politicians and spread like genocide against the Ukrainian people. "I think that the whole world should unite against what Russia is doing. I hope that soon there will be freedom of thought, actions, of means of mass communication," Vlad added.