Russian police thwart Kasparov Kremlin protests

POLICE thwarted an anti-Kremlin protest organised by Garry Kasparov’s opposition group yesterday, seizing demonstrators and shoving them into trucks. They detained at least 100 people including the group’s co-leader.

About 10 protesters also were detained in St Petersburg, Russian media reported. There was no sign of former chess champion Kasparov at the chaotic downtown Moscow square where he had vowed to hold a demonstration despite being denied permission.

Kasparov and his allies in the group Other Russia want to draw attention to Russia’s economic troubles and to protest Kremlin plans to extend the presidential term from four years to six.

Kremlin critics say the planned constitutional change is the latest step in a retreat from democracy and is designed to further increase the grip of powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his allies. Before the planned start of the demonstration yesterday, hundreds of police ringed Triumph Square, which was cordoned off with metal barriers and police trucks.

Police seized Kasparov’s Other Russia co-leader, Eduard Limonov, along with a handful of bodyguards as they approached the square. They were bundled into police vehicles.

Police roughly grabbed protesters who tried to enter the square. Officers could be seen detaining people and dragging several of them into a waiting truck. Some were members of a pro-Kremlin youth group that staged a counter-demonstration, dropping leaflets from a concert hall rooftop.

Two protesters climbed onto the truck and were manhandled by police who shoved them into the vehicle through a roof hatch.

Kasparov, a former world chess champion who has become a fierce Kremlin critic, has been detained in the past and Other Russia members have also been beaten by police when they have defied tight restrictions placed on their gatherings by authorities.