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Anti-Putin demo draws big crowd
03/03/2007 22:41 - (SA)
St Petersburg - At least 2 000
Russian protesters broke through police lines and blocked St
Petersburg's main thoroughfare on Saturday, in an unusually bold
show of opposition to the Kremlin.
The demonstrators, shouting "Freedom!" and brandishing
orange flares, dispersed after about one hour but earlier police
in riot gear and wielding truncheons tussled with protesters.
Police said they had detained dozens of people.
Authorities in St Petersburg, Russia's second city and
hometown of President Vladimir Putin, forbade the protest saying
it would cause too much disruption.
Protesters defied that ban, pushing through several police
cordons to march about two km down the city's Nevsky Prospect
before stopping in front of a line of hundreds of riot police
backed by armoured jeeps.
Protest leaders said they were staging a "march of the
discontented" to resist what they called the Kremlin's
tightening grip on power and to demand a fair presidential
election next year.
The constitution requires Putin to step down when his second
term ends in 2008. Most observers expect him to endorse a
Kremlin insider to succeed him at the election.
Opposition is in a minority
The anti-Kremlin opposition is in a minority. Opinion polls
show a big majority of Russian voters approve of Putin's rule.
"It (the protest) was a major success for the opposition,"
said Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion who is now an
outspoken critic of Putin.
"It is the beginning of the Russian people recognising that
they can change things," Kasparov told Reuters. "They (the
police) used force against a very peaceful demonstration."
A spokesperson for the city police said between two and three
thousand protesters took part and that "several dozen" were
detained. Organisers said about 5 000 people joined the protest
and spoke of hundreds of detentions.
The demonstration was unusual because most anti-Kremlin
protests in Russia attract only a few hundred people and they
are easily contained by police.
Novelist detained
Among those detained were local legislators and Eduard
Limonov, a cult novelist and leader of the "Other Russia"
opposition coalition which organised the protest.
"I came here because I am against this system, which does
not like elections, which does not allow demonstrations. I am
against the abuse of power by bureaucrats," said protester
Alesya Galkina.
Nationwide support for the opposition is weak but St
Petersburg is one of its biggest strongholds.
Tensions have been running high there since the opposition
Yabloko party was barred from running in a regional vote this
month. Critics said the party's exclusion was part of a Kremlin
effort to silence dissent before the presidential election.
- Reuters
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