Tens of Thousands Defy Raids to March against Putin
Tens of thousands of protesters chanting "Russia Will be Free" rallied in Moscow on Tuesday against President Vladimir Putin's third term despite a police crackdown on their leaders a day earlier.
Flag-waving crowds made their way down leafy boulevards from Moscow's central Pushkin Square as the march began with police putting the numbers at around 18,000.
City authorities have greatly played down previous protest figures. Opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov put the turnout at over 100,000, although AFP reporters on the ground said the figure was more in the tens of thousands.
Some shouted slogans such as "Russia without Putin" and held up whimsical protest symbols that have defined the light-hearted mood of historic protests which gripped Moscow this winter.
Almost all the main leaders of the social network driven protest were absent as they were being questioned by investigators, who hauled them in in an apparent bid to disrupt the march.
It was the first mass rally after the ruling party rammed through legislation raising penalties for offences by protesters to 300,000 rubles ($9,000) -- about the size of Russians' average annual pay.
The sanctioned march, to be followed by a rally, came a day after masked officers carried out early morning raids on the protest leaders' apartments as part of a criminal probe into violence at an earlier protest.
They searched the homes of the charismatic lawyer and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny and television presenter Ksenia Sobchak, who played a major part in recent Occupy-style protests.
Others targeted included the moderate democracy campaigner Ilya Yashin, who was staying at Sobchak's apartment, as well as Udaltsov.
Protesters on Tuesday responded to the heavy-handed tactics with posters saying "No to 1937," referring to Stalin-era persecutions, and "Stop the repression, you are making us into revolutionaries."
Navalny, Yashin and Sobchak were all released after being questioned at the Investigative Committee on Tuesday morning and were expected to join the rally later in the day.
"Investigators intend to find out their role in organizing (the May 6) mass demonstration," said Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin.
He later added that the protest leaders were questioned as witnesses rather than suspects in the unrest.
The investigation concerns bloody battles that broke out between riot police and the mostly young crowd during a Moscow event held on the eve of Putin's May 7 swearing in, although Sobchak did not even attend.
Scenes of police clubs swinging against the backdrop of the Kremlin drew a sharp rebuke from Western governments and dealt a bruising political blow to Putin on the very first day of his return from a four-year stint as premier.
Udaltsov turned down a summons for questioning and attended the march, saying that he was obliged to as one of the organizers.
"I will attend voluntarily and will answer all the questions," he said at the start of the march, wearing dark glasses and looking drawn after recent detentions.
"They wanted to behead the protest movement" said opposition lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov, who is one of the protest organizers, at the march.
"No one is afraid of arrests since we can't live this way any longer."
"We need to make the law the governing principle, that is what I hope these rallies accomplish," said one of the protesters, art teacher Vera Fyodorova.
The chief of Putin's human rights council, Mikhail Fedotov sounded the alarm on the raids on Monday, saying that "from the standpoint of social harmony, modernization and political reforms, this is the very worst that could have happened."
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters that Washington "is deeply concerned by the apparent harassment of Russian political opposition figures on the eve of the planned demonstrations."
almost 12 years
@Benzona je ne sais pas à quoi tu fais allusion en soutenant Putin sachant que c'est le mec le plus mafieux et le plus corrompu en Russie. Vive plutôt la Perestroïka et un salut à Gorbatchev, un vrai homme d'état!
almost 12 years
putin will visit israel on 25th of june and dicuss with natanyahu : syria. no comment.
almost 12 years
Figure toi que non, mais alors pas du tout. le gars a un idéal, redresser le pays. les oligarques ont très peur de lui... ceux qui le fréquente encore gardent profile bas (Abramovitch etc...). En fait, la qualité de vie s'est énormément améliorée en Russie. Je sais ça de source sure étant donne mes nobles origines Russes -en plus de libanaises- et dont la famille réside encore a Saint-Pétersbourg.
A bon entendeur ;-)
almost 12 years
je pense que tu as raison sur le redressement partiel de l'économie du pays. Mais ce que je reproche à ce pouvoir incarné par Putin c'est la non-tolérance, c'est la restriction de la liberté, c'est l'élimination des opposants en permanence, c'est la censure des médias. C'EST LE "SI TU ME SOUTIENS TU ES LIBRES SINON JE T' ÉLIMINE. c'est la peur qu'engendre ces soldats civiles ( à la shabi7a) aux personnes opposants au pouvoir! c'est la falsification des bulletins de votes!
Même économiquement Benzona, certes il y a eu une amélioration mais c'est surtout grâce aux ressources naturelles notamment le gaz et uranium!
almost 12 years
What you mentioned about Putin may be true and I have no reason to doubt your sources in St. Petersburg. A benevolent dictator he may be but still a dictator none the less. Thousands in Russia are mobilizing against him and who am I to disbelieve their motives. I think that what is unfolding in Russia recently greatly resembles the Arab Spring uprising. I may be totally off but that is my gut feeling.
Some in Syria may describe Bashar in the same terms as you did above and I am sure some Syrians did benefit from some of Bashar's actions but that by no means changes the equation.
almost 12 years
My family, or what's left of it has been targeted since 1917. Most of them were killed in various Siberian gulags. he few that survived the revolution and the gulags were women and my grand father who fled St-Pete. Of course, Lenin, Stalin and the other tyrants took everything from them and properties were never returned. The toughest years they had were in the 80's and 90's. My relatives who visited me 10 days ago mentioned the Yeltsin years as really bad.Since Putin, they can afford doing things again (they aren't active in local politics) although there's corruption, but way less than Lebanon and many Western countries. But the country is definitely improving despite the Putin's grip. Afterall, Russia is the biggest country on Earth and since the middle ages strong men(inc. the Czars) had to work hard to keep it together. Unlike Syria, Putin shares the income from natural resources with ALL Russian citizens.
almost 12 years
So now you can see why Putin is so opposed to any aid being given to the Syrian Opposition as they try to defend themselves against a murderous callous regime. Putin's Regime does not want to be next.
Long live Putin and Medvedev, They did a wonderful job in Russia although I'm not proud of them them for Syria.