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WORLD NEWS Monday 27 March 2017

Nationwide protests bring thousands to Russia’s streets

HOWARD AMOS cow crowd at about 7,000,
JIM HEINTZ but it could have been
Associated Press larger. The one-hectare
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s (2.5-acre) Pushkin Square
opposition, often written was densely crowded as
off by critics as a small and were sidewalks on the ad-
irrelevant coterie of privi- jacent Tverskaya Street.
leged urbanites, put on In St. Petersburg, about
an impressive nationwide 5,000 protesters assem-
show of strength Sunday bled in the Mars Field park,
with scores of protest rallies shouting slogans including
spanning the vast country. “Putin resign!” and “Down
Hundreds were arrested, with the thieves in the
including Alexei Navalny, Kremlin!”
the anti-corruption cam- Russia’s beleaguered op-
paigner who is President position is often seen as pri-
Vladimir Putin’s most prom- marily a phenomenon of
inent critic. a Westernized urban elite,
It was the biggest show of but Sunday’s protests in-
defiance since the 2011- cluded gatherings in plac-
2012 wave of demon- es far from cosmopolitan
strations that rattled the centers, such as Siberia’s
Kremlin and led to harsh Alexei Navalny is detained by police in downtown Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 26, 2017. Rus- Chita and Barnaul.
new laws aimed at sup- sia’s leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny and his supporters aim to hold anti-corruption dem- “Navalny has united peo-
pressing dissent. Almost all onstrations throughout Russia. But authorities are denying permission and police have warned ple who think the same;
of Sunday’s rallies were un- they won’t be responsible for “negative consequences” or unsanctioned gatherings. (Evgeny that people don’t agree
sanctioned, but thousands Feldman for A. Navalny’s campaign via AP) with the authorities is ob-
braved the prospect of ar- ing there were about 500 yachts and vineyards. him. Putin has dominated vious from what is going
rests to gather in cities from arrests. Navalny is a persistent thorn Russian political life, as on in the country today,”
the Far East port of Vladi- Navalny, who was arrested in the Kremlin’s side. He has president or prime minister, Anna Ivanova, 19, said at
vostok to the “window on while walking from a nearby served several short jail since 2000. the Moscow demonstra-
the West” of St. Petersburg. subway station to the dem- terms after arrests in previ- No overall figures on ar- tion. “I am a bit scared.”
An organization that moni- onstration at Moscow’s ous protests and has twice rests or protest attendance Scuffles with police erupt-
tors Russian political re- iconic Pushkin Square, was been convicted in a fraud were available. Some Rus- ed sporadically and the
pression, OVD-Info, said it the driving force of the case, but given a suspend- sian state news media arrested demonstrators in-
counted more than 800 demonstrations. He called ed sentence. He intends gave relatively cursory re- cluded a gray-haired man
people arrested in the for them after his Founda- to run for president in 2018 ports on the demonstra- whom police dragged
Moscow demonstrations tion for Fighting Corruption — an election in which tions; the state news TV along the pavement. Po-
alone. That number could released a report contend- Putin is widely expected channel Rossiya-24 ignored lice cleared the square af-
not be confirmed and ing that Prime Minister Dmit- to run for another term — them altogether in evening ter about three hours and
state news agency Tass cit- ry Medvedev has amassed even though the convic- broadcasts. began herding demonstra-
ed Moscow police as say- a collection of mansions, tion technically disqualifies Police estimated the Mos- tors down side streets.q