Riot squad batter anti-Putin protesters

By WILL STEWART

Last updated at 22:26 15 April 2007


Riot police have attacked anti-Kremlin

protesters with clubs as they left a peaceful rally in

the centre of St Petersburg.

Around 150 members of the Other Russia

coalition of opposition groups were seized

and herded on to police buses, where the

beatings continued, and carried off to jail.

They are expected to be charged with

public disorder offences, which carry fines.

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Two thousand demonstrators in the

country’s tourist capital found themselves

confronted by the same number of

blackhelmeted riot police. Among those seized was Eduard Limonov, leader of the far-Right

National Bolsheviks, who said: "The

authorities have declared war on the people."

Riot police lining the route away from the

rally kicked an elderly man, who fell to the

ground, and hit others. "Stop the beating,"

demonstrators shouted at the police. "Fascists. How much did Putin pay you?"

Earlier, there were chants of "revolution"

and "freedom" as well as demands that next

year’s presidential election, when Vladimir

Putin will stand down, is free and fair. The

Kremlin leader has not announced his

chosen successor – but whoever it is, they are

widely expected to be victorious.

A day earlier, the chess champion Garry

Kasparov, now a politician, was detained

and fined for taking part in a banned

Moscow demonstration against Putin.

After being released with a £20 public

order fine, he said: "The last two days

showed that the Putin regime doesn’t pay

attention to legalities and relies on brute

force. My prediction is that by the end of

this year Russia will sink into political

turmoil."

The president spent the weekend in

his St Petersburg palace hosting a reception

for Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme,

who was attending a martial arts event in

the city. Putin denies that he is trampling on

democracy and claims that many of the

opposition groups are extremists trying to

destabilise Russia.

This week he will step up demands for

Britain to extradite the tycoon Boris

Berezovsky, who called for a "revolution" to

oust him from power.

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