3 March 2008 opposition protesters held rallies in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg against the election of Dmitry Medvedev, Vladidmir Putin`s protégé. The Moscow authorities without any reason didn`t give an official permission for conducting the March, so it was unauthorized. As a result, dozens of people were beaten and more than 100 arrested by police. (05-MARCH-08)
Written by Inna Komar/HRH Moscow
Sources: http://www.alertnet.org, http://www.hro.org, http://www.lenta.ru, http://www.kommersant.ru
Photos: http://www.7sergei.gallery.ru, http://www.lenta.ru
Moscow
The opposition of Putin`s regime planned to hold the rally against the election`s results on 3 March 2008. According to the law, the protesters gave an application form to Moscow authorities to let them conduct the march. But they were refused. Despite of this hundreds of activists, discontented with the elections, came to the centre of Moscow that day to express their disagreement. But the district, they were planning to gather in, was blocked by more than 300 riot police (OMON). As soon as groups of protesters started express their opinion, police began to detain activists and dragged them to police busses, sometimes using batons. Some of the protesters lit flares spreading scarlet smoke across the square in central Moscow, screaming “Your election is a farce” and “Fascists! Fascists!” “It is my duty to come down here and express my opposition after these pre-planned and falsified elections,” Yelizaveta, a protester in her 50s, told Reuters as riot police arrested people around her.
According to various sources, from 50 to 120 “the most active protesters” were arrested that day. But in the very evening all of them were released. Opposition leader Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who attended a separate rally in the northern city of St Petersburg, said 250 people had been detained in Moscow. A spokesman for Moscow´s police declined to comment. Western observers have criticised Sunday´s election as not fully democratic but Putin said the vote was held in strict accordance with the constitution. Independent opposition candidates were either barred from running or refused to take part in protest.
Saint Petersburg
The same march took place in the northern capital of the Russian Federation, in Saint Petersburg. About 2,000 activists chanted “Revolution, Revolution” and “Russia without Putin”. The meeting had official permission, and there wasn`t as brutal clashes with police as there was in Moscow, but Maxim Reznik (right), head of the Yabloko opposition party in St Petersburg, was detained late on Sunday, opposition worker Olga Kurnosova said. “He was accused of not obeying police orders. He called me this morning and said his coat had been torn and his forehead bruised,” she told Reuters.
Police confirmed the detention, saying Reznik was detained after he had attacked a policeman. Reznik himself maintains that he saw policemen beating a man and just tried to stop that fight. He was sentenced to 2 months in prison. Reznik categorically doesn`t agree with the court`s decision and went on hunger strike.
