Russia detains opposition protesters at rallies

Russian police detained dozens of opposition protesters Saturday in central Moscow as they tried to hold unsanctioned demonstrations against the jailing of political activists.

Police moved on the activists holding banners at a central square after opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Udaltsov arrived for a rally, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Liberal leader Nemtsov had said the rally on Pushkin Square did not need official sanction because it was a legal public meeting with a parliamentary deputy, Gennady Gudkov of the opposition A Just Russia party.

Nemtsov had announced the protest to demand the release of political prisoners, including businessman Alexei Kozlov, who was sentenced to five years for fraud last week in a retrial widely criticised by the opposition.

The rally was originally announced as campaigning for the release of Udaltsov, the radical leftwing leader of the Left Front movement, who was sentenced on Thursday to 10 days in jail for defying police at an earlier rally.

But Udaltsov was unexpectedly released from police detention cells with his punishment reduced to a 1,000 ruble ($30) fine late Friday.

He was detained after a March 10 protest against Vladimir Putin’s reelection to a third term as president with over 63 percent of the vote despite months of protest against his already 12-year rule.

Odaltsov had been sentenced before to penalties of up to 15 days in prison and was hospitalised more than once last year after refusing to eat while in jail.

The protesters also slammed a smear documentary aired on Russian television on Thursday that alleged that the opposition paid people to turn out for rallies.

The opposition has announced a plan to hold a protest on Sunday outside the offices of the NTV television channel that aired the documentary, which is known for its sensational specials on the Kremlin’s foes.

Several hundreds held white ribbons, the symbol of the opposition movement, and shouted slogans such as, “Russia without Putin” and “Time to change the authorities” and “Shame on NTV”, an AFP reporter witnessed.

Moscow police said they detained more than 20 people for trying to hold a separate unsanctioned rally earlier Saturday on a square next to the Kremlin protesting against the detention of environmental activists.

The protesters planned to hold a series of single-person pickets, which do not need official sanction, but police grabbed activists and piled them into three buses on the Revolution Square, an AFP reporter witnessed.

Among those detained was prominent opposition campaigner Yevgenia Chirikova.

The picket was protesting the jailing last week for 10 days of two activists who were investigating illegal construction in the southern Krasnodar region, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.