UPDATE 2-Russia opposition leaders held as protesters defy police

December 15, 2012|Reuters

* Putin foes hold rally marking year of protests

* Police detain opposition leaders, break up protest

* Opposition blames Putin for stagnation, crackdown

By Gabriela Baczynska and Alissa de Carbonnel

MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Russian riot police detained four
opposition leaders and broke up a crowd of about 2,000 people
who went ahead with a banned rally on Saturday to demand an end
to Vladimir Putin's 13-year rule.

The opposition chose a symbolic location, in front of the
Soviet KGB security police's former headquarters, for the rally
marking a year of protests against Putin, and said the police
intervention showed the limits on dissent under the president.

Police were out in force and helicopters buzzed overhead as
protesters, wrapped in scarves and fur hats because of the
extreme cold, chanted "Free political prisoners", "Down with the
police state" and "Russia without Putin" on the vast Lubyanka
Square in central Moscow.

One unfurled a banner saying "crooks and thieves" - the
popular name used to describe the Russian leadership.

But the police eventually lost patience with the rally,
which had been banned by Moscow city authorities, and strode
across the square in helmets and flak jackets after about two
hours, hauling protesters away one by one and locking elbows to
push others away until no one was left.

About 40 people were detained, a police spokesman said, and
there were minor scuffles.

Leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov and anti-corruption blogger
Alexei Navalny were detained at the start of the rally and two
fellow protest leaders, Ilya Yashin and Ksenia Sobchak, were
detained on their way to the protest.

"I don't know how many people are here but I am proud of
each and every one of those who came here. The main thing is
that people are here, that they are expressing their view and
showing that they exist," Navalny said before he was detained.

"Obviously the authorities don't like attempts to carry out
such protest actions and the development of the protest movement
in general. They don't like anything that threatens them."


Protests began a year ago after Putin's United Russia party
won a parliamentary election marred by allegations of
vote-rigging, but quickly developed into the biggest movement
against the former KGB spy since he first came to power in 2000.

At their peak last winter the biggest rallies attracted up
to 100,000 people, witnesses said. But attendance has dwindled
started what the opposition says is a clampdown on dissent.

"Not a single one of our demands has been met and the
political repressions continue," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of
the main protest leaders and a former member of parliament.

Despite the ban on the rally, protesters came out in
temperatures of minus 15 Celsius (plus 5 Fahrenheit) to show
their concern that Putin's return to the Kremlin is leading
Russia into economic and political stagnation.

"I'm scared of arrest but I'm more scared that my children
will want to live in another country," said Alexander Ivanov,
39, a businessman dressed in a thick jacket. "I'm afraid it's
already too late. Putin and this country are incompatible - he's
running it into the ground."

One protester, a translator who gave her name only as Anna,
brought her prayer book with her.

that away from us, or punish, detain or torture us for our
political views," she said.


The 12 months of protests have accelerated the birth of a
civil society two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union
but the opposition - a disparate group of leftists, liberals,
nationalists and ecologists - broadly acknowledges it must now
hope for political evolution rather than revolution.

The protests failed to prevent Putin, now 60, winning a
presidential election in March after four years as prime
minister. He has a grip on state media, retains support in the
industrial and provincial heartlands that have long been his
power base and could rule until 2024 if re-elected in 2018.

"Fewer and fewer people are going to the protests. It's
fading because I don't see any leaders for me here," said
Yelena, 45, an engineer who was afraid to give her last name.

But she added: "I am here out of solidarity with the people.
We came because we are unhappy with the way things are going."

Some protesters have been put off by what opposition leaders
say is a clampdown on dissent and freedom of expression since
Putin returned to the Kremlin.

Putin denies there has been a crackdown but new laws since
May broaden the definition of treason, increase punishment for
protesters who step out of line, and tighten control over the
Internet and on lobby groups that receive foreign funding.

Several opposition leaders, including Navalny, face criminal
charges that they say are politically motivated and intended to
intimidate them into giving up their opposition activities.

Federal investigators announced a new criminal investigation
against Navalny on Friday, accusing him and his brother of theft
in a move which his supporters said was intended to intimidate
the opposition on the eve of the protest.