Sel Appa
25-11-2007, 08:50
Garry Kasparov has been arrested for "scuffling with police" during a demonstration against Putin and his buddies. This is the Russia y'all wanted?
Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071124/ts_afp/russiapoliticsdemos_071124163853)
MOSCOW (AFP) - Opposition leader and chess legend Garry Kasparov was arrested Saturday after scuffling with riot police during a protest against President Vladimir Putin a week before parliamentary elections.
Kasparov and one of his bodyguards were grabbed by riot police and forced into a police bus which then drove them away from the scene where hundreds of opposition activists were in a tense standoff with security forces.
"Freedom! Freedom!" supporters shouted as the bus drove off in central Moscow, AFP journalists said.
The arrest came during a march in central Moscow by members of The Other Russia coalition led by Kasparov and which brings together radical leftwingers, moderates and liberal reformers opposed to Putin's policies.
"We were posing no threat to public order," Kasparov told journalists after interior ministry forces surrounded him and his supporters.
"We wanted to peacefully march to the election commission. The powers that be are simply afraid of people who express their dissent."
Kasparov was arrested after around 2,000 anti-Putin demonstrators held a rally, after which a few hundred marched toward the Central Election Commission office to deliver a petition denouncing the December 2 parliamentary vote.
Putin's United Russia party is set to win a strong majority in the vote held just three months before presidential elections that are to elect a successor to the Kremlin leader.
Police said a total of 13 people were arrested following the demonstration. Kasparov was also arrested last April after an opposition march in central Moscow was violently dispersed by riot police.
Russian nationalist writer Eduard Limonov, a senior leader in The Other Russia group, was arrested and candidate Maria Gaidar of the liberal opposition party Union of Right Forces (SPS) was briefly detained, spokesmen said.
"Putin is a coward. We elected a coward. He's afraid of peaceful people," SPS leader Boris Nemtsov told demonstrators as hundreds of riot police stood by on a deserted street near the centre of the city.
Intimidation from the authorities limited the number of people present, said Nemtsov, who was nominated on Friday by the SPS as the party's candidate for the presidency.
"People are afraid, they have been told there will be disorder, they have been told there will be an attack on me. The authorities want us to be afraid, but in fact it is they who are afraid," Nemtsov said.
In a statement ahead of Saturday's protest, The Other Russia acknowledged that Moscow authorities had not given permission for the march but said the group planned to go ahead with it anyway to protest the election.
Hours earlier, police raided an office housing the website of The Other Russia, a spokeswoman said.
The Other Russia rally was one of around 10 political demonstrations that took place in the Russian capital on Saturday.
Near Red Square in central Moscow, around 2,000 members of the youth group Nashi rallied to show their support for Putin.
Many were holding white balloons which they said were intended to symbolise the "airheads" of the opposition.
"These are our rivals," said Sasha Isayev, 20, pointing to his balloon.
"They are stupid and ridiculous opponents."
Elsewhere in Moscow, the Communist Party held a rally as did a handful of other pro- and anti-Putin groups.
Around 3,600 police officers were on special duty to supervise the rallies, with more than half of them assigned to The Other Russia gathering alone, according to Echo Moskvy radio.
Separately, the SPS said its main office was vandalised by youths who broke several windows at the building ahead of Saturday's rally.
A number of participants and journalists covering a march of The Other Russia early this year were injured when riot police violently dispersed the demonstration, drawing international criticism.
Subsequent public rallies in Moscow and other cities however have been mainly without violence.
Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071124/ts_afp/russiapoliticsdemos_071124163853)
MOSCOW (AFP) - Opposition leader and chess legend Garry Kasparov was arrested Saturday after scuffling with riot police during a protest against President Vladimir Putin a week before parliamentary elections.
Kasparov and one of his bodyguards were grabbed by riot police and forced into a police bus which then drove them away from the scene where hundreds of opposition activists were in a tense standoff with security forces.
"Freedom! Freedom!" supporters shouted as the bus drove off in central Moscow, AFP journalists said.
The arrest came during a march in central Moscow by members of The Other Russia coalition led by Kasparov and which brings together radical leftwingers, moderates and liberal reformers opposed to Putin's policies.
"We were posing no threat to public order," Kasparov told journalists after interior ministry forces surrounded him and his supporters.
"We wanted to peacefully march to the election commission. The powers that be are simply afraid of people who express their dissent."
Kasparov was arrested after around 2,000 anti-Putin demonstrators held a rally, after which a few hundred marched toward the Central Election Commission office to deliver a petition denouncing the December 2 parliamentary vote.
Putin's United Russia party is set to win a strong majority in the vote held just three months before presidential elections that are to elect a successor to the Kremlin leader.
Police said a total of 13 people were arrested following the demonstration. Kasparov was also arrested last April after an opposition march in central Moscow was violently dispersed by riot police.
Russian nationalist writer Eduard Limonov, a senior leader in The Other Russia group, was arrested and candidate Maria Gaidar of the liberal opposition party Union of Right Forces (SPS) was briefly detained, spokesmen said.
"Putin is a coward. We elected a coward. He's afraid of peaceful people," SPS leader Boris Nemtsov told demonstrators as hundreds of riot police stood by on a deserted street near the centre of the city.
Intimidation from the authorities limited the number of people present, said Nemtsov, who was nominated on Friday by the SPS as the party's candidate for the presidency.
"People are afraid, they have been told there will be disorder, they have been told there will be an attack on me. The authorities want us to be afraid, but in fact it is they who are afraid," Nemtsov said.
In a statement ahead of Saturday's protest, The Other Russia acknowledged that Moscow authorities had not given permission for the march but said the group planned to go ahead with it anyway to protest the election.
Hours earlier, police raided an office housing the website of The Other Russia, a spokeswoman said.
The Other Russia rally was one of around 10 political demonstrations that took place in the Russian capital on Saturday.
Near Red Square in central Moscow, around 2,000 members of the youth group Nashi rallied to show their support for Putin.
Many were holding white balloons which they said were intended to symbolise the "airheads" of the opposition.
"These are our rivals," said Sasha Isayev, 20, pointing to his balloon.
"They are stupid and ridiculous opponents."
Elsewhere in Moscow, the Communist Party held a rally as did a handful of other pro- and anti-Putin groups.
Around 3,600 police officers were on special duty to supervise the rallies, with more than half of them assigned to The Other Russia gathering alone, according to Echo Moskvy radio.
Separately, the SPS said its main office was vandalised by youths who broke several windows at the building ahead of Saturday's rally.
A number of participants and journalists covering a march of The Other Russia early this year were injured when riot police violently dispersed the demonstration, drawing international criticism.
Subsequent public rallies in Moscow and other cities however have been mainly without violence.