Police thwarted a banned anti-Kremlin protest in central Moscow last weekend, seizing dozens of demonstrators and shoving them into trucks.According to reports, somewhere between 90 and 130 people were detained around the capital. The opposition movement (headed by fierce Kremlin critic and former chess champion Garry Kasparov) said the co-leader of the group was one of those seized.
The Other Russia movement organized the protest, in defiance of a ban, to draw attention to Russia's economic troubles and to protest Kremlin plans to extend the presidential term from four years to six. Critics say the constitutional change is a further retreat from democracy and is aimed only at strengthening the grip of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
As expected, news broadcasts on the main television networks (all essentially state-controlled) made no mention of the Moscow crackdown or of protests in St. Petersburg and Vladivostok.
Before the scheduled start of the protests, hundreds of officers guarded Triumph Square, which was ringed by police trucks and metal barriers. Police roughly grabbed protesters who tried to enter the square, dragging at least 25 people into waiting trucks.
Police also seized Other Russia co-leader Eduard Limonov along with a handful of bodyguards as they walked toward the square. They were bundled into police vehicles.
Lyudmila Morozova, 61, a nurse from the southern city of Voronezh, had planned to protest in Triumph Square but was put off by the massive police presence. She said the police actions showed that the government was afraid "some kind of power will rise against them."
"I want my country to develop along a democratic path," said Morozova, standing against a wall at the edge of the square. "It's not only not democratic, it's becoming totalitarian."
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