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Russian Police Crackdown On Anti-Putin Protests
Russian riot police beat opposition activists on Sunday and detained nearly 200 people at protest rallies against President Vladimir Putin a week before the country’s parliamentary election.
The unrest came a day after a similar event in Moscow ended with the arrest of Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and opposition leader, whose coalition, Other Russia, has declared that Mr. Putin is turning Russia into a dictatorship. A judge sentenced Mr. Kasparov to five days in jail.
With the economy strong and the nation enjoying stability after the turmoil of the 1990s, Mr. Putin has become widely popular, and Mr. Kasparov’s movement has only a small following. Mr. Putin’s party, United Russia, is expected to win an overwhelming majority in the elections, aided by the Kremlin’s control over government agencies and the news media.
About 500 activists made it to the marches but were vastly outnumbered by riot police. Most of those detained were later released.
-Samantha Giles
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http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2007/12/russia_a_winter.html
Watch footage of the police crackdown on a pro-democracy march in St. Petersburg in a video dispatch just posted on the FRONTLINE/World site.