Hundreds of demonstrators arrested in Russia

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PHOTOS.com/Thinkstock(MOSCOW) — Hundreds of people have been detained in Russia in an unusual day of political disruption and public anger directed at the Kremlin.

Police in Moscow said Monday they had detained over 150 protesters. Authorities said 500 had been arrested during the demonstrations in St. Petersburg. An opposition-leaning monitoring group, OVD-Info, reported far higher figures for Moscow and estimated that the total number of arrested across Russia may be over 1,000.

The White House condemned the arrests, with spokesman Sean Spicer calling for the immediate release of peaceful demonstrators.

Thousands of people came out in cities across Russia to take part in protests that had been called by Aleksei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who has expressed interest in running for president. Some of the demonstrations had received permission to go ahead, but in Moscow, police had warned they would be illegal. The protests were deliberately organized on one of the Russian government’s most important holidays, when hundreds of authorized events are also held.

The demonstrations were a follow-up to large-scale protests that swept Russia in late March. These protests, with the backing of Navalny, were directed against senior Kremlin officials and attracted tens of thousands of people in almost 100 cities.

The number of people at Monday’s demonstrations was still being debated on Monday evening. Moscow’s interior ministry office said around 4,500 people had taken part there. In St. Petersburg, authorities claimed 1,500 were present. Russia’s police frequently give lower estimates and the number could be higher. Photos and videos from rallies in smaller cities appeared to show crowds ranging from a few dozen to hundreds.

Navalny himself never reached the protest. He was arrested at his home in Moscow roughly an hour before it was due to start. He was in court on Monday evening, charged with a repeat offense of calling for an unauthorized public demonstration and disobeying a police officer. He faces a 30-day detention if convicted.

The protests Monday were focused on alleged corruption among senior officials and centered in particular on Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who Navalny has accused of amassing a property empire through shady charitable schemes.

In March, Navalny, whose Fund for Combating Corruption (FBK) specializes in producing investigations into the supposed ill-gotten gains of senior officials, released a video report detailing how Medvedev has allegedly acquired mansions, vineyards and a yacht worth hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars. Medvedev has denied the allegations, telling Russian news agency TASS in April that they were “hodge-podge.”

The report, however, seems to have struck a nerve among some Russians, particularly the young, who participated in unusually large numbers in March’s and Monday’s protests. The presence of an unusually young crowd at Navalny’s events has been noticed by political observers in the country.

Navalny, who says he will run against Putin for president in 2018, has attracted a major following online through his exposés of official graft, using his own YouTube channel to circumvent official state media from which he is effectively barred.

When the thousands of demonstrators arrived in Moscow on Monday, the street was blocked by sandbags, tank traps and medieval tents — props from a historical re-enactment festival that had been organized for the national holiday. The protesters were initially held at the entrance to the event, where police had set up metal detectors. But riot police were eventually obliged to move the crowd through the re-enactment festival, meaning that the demonstrators, many shouting “Putin is a thief,” found themselves mingling with men dressed as medieval Russian knights. Men, equipped with costume swords and shields, tried to defend their tents as the demonstrators were driven past them by police; most just sat glumly and watched the protest surge around them.

The demonstrators’ decision to disrupt a large public event was an usually bold expression of dissent in Russia, appearing to illustrate the emboldened attitude of those who have coalesced around Navalny’s calls for protest. The protest was eventually dispersed after police charged repeatedly into the crowd.

The Kremlin has yet to comment on Monday’s protests. Following the March demonstrations, Putin was silent for several days, before warning that such demonstrations can lead to violent upheaval similar to that in the Arab Spring.

Speaking at an Arctic Forum, Putin told an audience he supported efforts against corruption, but said he disapproved of attempts to use the subject “by some kind of political forces for their own mercenary interests.”

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