Opposition leaders detained in Moscow while trying to rally
Published: 31 October, 2009, 21:03
Edited: 02 February, 2010, 05:00
Russian Federation, Moscow : Russian policemen detain a protestor in central Moscow on October 31, 2009. Russian riot police arrested 50 opposition protesters who were demonstrating for freedom of assembly. (AFP Photo / Alexey Sazonov)
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Fifty people have been arrested in Moscow at an unauthorized opposition rally. A prominent opposition activist was among the detained.
Around 100 people and the nearly the same number of journalists gathered in the center of Moscow. Police say permission wasn't granted for the rally because a military festival had already been arranged for the same place at the same time.
More than half of them are believed to belong to the pro-Kremlin youth movement 'The Young Russia' and were trying to stop the demonstration.
One of the leaders of the Other Russia opposition movement, Eduard Limonov, was one of those detained, and has vowed to file a court appeal against his arrest.
“I always file an appeal when I get arrested, and I always win in court,” Limonov said, speaking on the phone from the police department with the Interfax news agency.
Two more opposition leaders were among those detained: Defense opposition party leader Oleg Kozlovsky and opposition activist Marina Litvinovich.
31.10.2009, 19:56
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What is "unauthorized" opposition rally? Unless I do not understand the Russian legal concepts, where I live "unauthorized" rally --- opposition or any other --- would not be happening without a permit. And I do not believe that people breaking the law can expect always to get away without consequences. I can understand the first time offenders. Many times people do not know the rules, and leniency is understandable. But people who brag about doing it and expecting to get away with it --- are strange indeed. It is also a puzzle to me when a few hundred people get together in Moscow to protest they are called "the opposition". The opposition to what? Just generic opposition to "Putin", or now "Medvedev". They are not brand names, so unless the "opposition" actually has something specific to rally around, they are really not an opposition. They represent groups of people who have specific grievances, and until they can express those grievances to resonate with the electorate, most people, in balance, do not have patience for such "opposition". It is easy to always be in opposition. It it much harder to spell out what one is for, and get in front of voters to get their approval.
Dear "Bianca", first of all I congratulate you on the well crafted "objective outsider" perspective you try to present there. It's actually somewhat admirable. But as I'm sure you're well aware, the opposition rallies (including a gay rights parade) NEVER get granted permits...Mr. Putin makes sure of that. So the only way for people to stand up and express dissent from this increasingly totalitarian regime (which is well documented)...is mainly through these spontaneous rallies on the street...knowing that they'll be arrested and beaten...but at least they'll manage to attract some momentary attention to their cause. No other choice. No other way. So please, do us all a favor, and spare us your "people don't have patience for such opposition" BS speech. Because you either have absolutely no clue what you're talking about or you're just some middle aged Putin-Patriot Russian man named "Bianca" towing the party line. I go for the latter. (by the way, is you're reading this, I am SHOCKED that RT actually posted it...hopefully uncensored).