3000 people to rally in support of Yaroslavl mayor

Some 3,000 people are expected to attend a sanctioned rally before the building of the regional government in support of Yaroslavl mayor Yevgeny Urlashov later on Tuesday. The rally was sanctioned by the administration of Yaroslavl's Kirov district. Police said they would take measures to ensure law and order during the event. Law-enforcement bodies know that political activists from other towns plan to participate in the rally. Some of them are disposed to law-breaking, so possible provocations will be stopped and their participants will held responsible, a regional police official told Itar-Tass. Earlier on Tuesday, Urlashov, who is accused of attempted bribe taking, was convoyed to a pre-trial detention center in Moscow, representative of the regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service Alexander Kruglov told Itar-Tass. "Today, Yevgeny Urlashov was convoyed to Moscow and is now under the supervision of the Federal Penitentiary Service department for Moscow," Kruglov said. The criminal case against the mayor had been passed to the Investigative Committee's department for the Central Federal District, which required his transfer to the Russian capital. On Monday, the Yaroslavl region court upheld the mayor's arrest. Urlashov was arrested on July 5. Attempted bribery charges were brought against the mayor, his deputy Dmitry Donskov, head of Town Hall's agency for municipal procurements Maxim Poikalainen, and mayor's advisor Alexei Lopatin. Andrei Zakharov was accused of "attempted mediation of bribe." In the second criminal case, the mayor is accused of taking a 500,000-rouble bribe from an entrepreneur for dropping Town Hall's claims against his firm. There is a video attached to the criminal case materials showing Urlashov's meeting with the businessman and his taking the money. Urlashov denied wrongdoing.