Tens of thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Moscow on Saturday after mass police detentions at recent protests that have been among the largest since President Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin in 2012. On a cold rainy afternoon, protesters huddled under umbrellas on the central Prospekt Andreya Sakharova street, where city authorities had given permission for the rally to take place but deployed a massive police presence, including officers in riot gear. The White Counter, an NGO that tracks participants in rallies, counted 40,000 people, while Moscow police gave a much lower attendance figure of 20,000. In recent weeks, thousands have attended street protests calling for free and fair elections after the exclusion of several opposition figures, including allies of top Putin critic Alexei Navalny, from local Moscow polls next month.
Thousands of armed riot police wearing Robocop-style armour and special forces troops yesterday failed to silence a 50,000-strong Russian crowd demanding an end to Vladimir Putin’s two decades of dictatorial rule.
More than 150 people were arrested in Moscow alone last night during a stand-off between protesters and security forces at the FSB secret service headquarters in the Lubyanka building.
In one of the most remarkable protests since the fall of the Soviet Union a generation ago, campaigners of all ages clutched umbrellas in the grey Moscow drizzle as they rallied under the gaze of rooftop police snipers.
Twenty years and a day after the ex-KGB spy chief first came to power as prime minister, they chanted ‘Rossiya Budet Svobodnoi’, or ‘Russia will be Free’, and ‘Putin Vor’ – ‘Putin is a Thief’.
One 16-year-old called Maria in the vast crowd seemed to speak for many as she said simply: ‘We want to live in a free country.’
For several hours the activists congregated on Sakharova Prospekt – a street in the centre of Moscow named after Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.
Secret servicemen grabbed images of their faces before troops backed by armoured vehicles and water cannon were deployed. Warnings of tough police reprisals were barked out from loudhailers against any of the good-natured demonstrators who dared to protest against Putin, or to demand open elections.
Many were enraged at official moves last week to take a child from its parents after they joined an unsanctioned protest. Other youngsters were snatched from their parents and held in cells-on-wheels until the illegal protests ended.
One man called Dmitry said: ‘My boiling point was when police started to grab kids from their parents.
‘I realised that this was it. I could not stay home any longer.’
Meanwhile Putin chose to ignore the demonstrations and was pictured smiling at a bike show in Sevastopol, as the arrests continued in Moscow and St Petersburg.
