Conley
12-06-2011, 02:50 PM
MOSCOW — Russian authorities acted decisively to quash a second day of anti-government protests on Tuesday, flooding the appointed site with throngs of pro-government activists who banged on drums to drown out the chants of “Russia without Putin" and "Down with Putin".
Several hundred opposition protesters convened in a central square, hoping to maintain the momentum created on Monday, when as many as 5,000 protested over reports of alleged fraud (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/world/europe/russian-parliamentary-elections-criticized-by-west.html) in parliamentary elections. The crowd that formed Tuesday, however, was rapidly choked off by lines of riot police, who dragged many protesters onto buses.
Police officials told the Interfax news service that 250 people had been detained, slightly fewer than the 300 who were detained Monday.Authorities also made an example of two of the leaders of the Monday protest — the blogger and anticorruption crusader, Aleksei Navalny (http://navalny.livejournal.com/), and a liberal activist, Ilya Yashin. Both men were sentenced to 15 days in prison for disobeying police orders.
Some protesters camped out on the street in hopes of glimpsing Mr. Navalny, sharing cold cuts and thermoses of sugary tea and a mood that was almost giddy after Monday’s large turnout.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/world/europe/jailing-opposition-leaders-russia-moves-to-quell-election-protests.html
Looks like they are using the military to break things up as well. They were already deployed around the area for the elections. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.
Several hundred opposition protesters convened in a central square, hoping to maintain the momentum created on Monday, when as many as 5,000 protested over reports of alleged fraud (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/world/europe/russian-parliamentary-elections-criticized-by-west.html) in parliamentary elections. The crowd that formed Tuesday, however, was rapidly choked off by lines of riot police, who dragged many protesters onto buses.
Police officials told the Interfax news service that 250 people had been detained, slightly fewer than the 300 who were detained Monday.Authorities also made an example of two of the leaders of the Monday protest — the blogger and anticorruption crusader, Aleksei Navalny (http://navalny.livejournal.com/), and a liberal activist, Ilya Yashin. Both men were sentenced to 15 days in prison for disobeying police orders.
Some protesters camped out on the street in hopes of glimpsing Mr. Navalny, sharing cold cuts and thermoses of sugary tea and a mood that was almost giddy after Monday’s large turnout.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/world/europe/jailing-opposition-leaders-russia-moves-to-quell-election-protests.html
Looks like they are using the military to break things up as well. They were already deployed around the area for the elections. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.