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Russian police beat protestors
15/04/2007 15:53 - (SA)
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| Russian riot police detain opposition leader Sergei Gulyayev during a protest in St Petersburg. (Dmitry Lovetsky, AP) |
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St Petersburg - Russian riot
police beat anti-Kremlin demonstrators with batons in the
tourist heart of St Petersburg on Sunday, a day after
authorities snuffed out a similar protest in Moscow.
The violence began as about 500 demonstrators calling for the
resignation of President Vladimir Putin moved towards a railway
station after the end of an officially permitted protest.
Police wearing blue urban combat uniforms and crash helmets
moved into the crowd, arrested some of the protesters and pushed
others to the ground and hit them with batons, a Reuters witness
said.
"Stop the beating," demonstrators shouted at the police.
"Fascists. How much did Putin pay you?"
The police herded about 150 protesters into police vans,
and continued to hit some of them with batons inside the vans.
The city authorities had allowed the protesters to hold a
meeting, but had banned a march. Moscow rally banned
Opponents of Putin, acting under the umbrella organisation
Other Russia, had planned two rallies over the weekend.
Authorities banned the main rally on Saturday in Moscow and
detained several hundred protesters there, including former
world chess champion Garry Kasparov.
On Sunday about 3 000 protesters watched by hundreds of riot
police gathered in a central St Petersburg square for the second
anti-Kremlin demonstration.
The mobile phone network had been blocked and police trucks
mounted with water cannon were parked in side streets.
"Freedom!" the protesters shouted. "Putin is the enemy of
the people."
"Our demand is the resignation of the government and the
president and free and fair elections this year and next," the
leader of the left-wing National Bolshevik party, Eduard
Limonov, told the crowd.
Russia holds parliamentary elections this year and a
presidential election in 2008.
- Reuters
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