By Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times –
MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday in protest ahead of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration Monday to a third presidential term, leading to clashes with police near the Kremlin. Several hundred people were arrested, including three opposition leaders, and dozens were injured.
The gathering had been called the March of Millions to protest alleged cheating in the March presidential election that gave Putin a new six-year term. However, many Muscovites left the city to celebrate the warm and sunny Victory Day weekend, and turnout was far lower than organizers had hoped.
“It was a mistake to call this a March of Millions, as the opposition movement now is definitely not at its peak,” said one protest leader, Boris Nemtsov. “It gives the authorities a new reason to discredit us and prepare new provocations for us.”
The protest began peacefully as the crowd quietly proceeded through downtown Moscow to Bolotnaya Square, across the Moscow River from the Kremlin.
Protesters carried posters with slogans such as “Let’s not let a thief into the Kremlin” and “Let’s drop the rat off the boat.” Two 4-year-old girls holding hands with their smiling father were chanting “Russia without Putin!” and “We won’t forget and forgive!” to the crowd’s amusement.
Banners including, among others, the communists’ red flag with a hammer and sickle and the rainbow flag of gay rights activists flew over the crowd.
Alexander Loginov, 39, a high-tech specialist, carried the Canadian flag, saying, “This is the only flag I had at home.” Gracefully circling a group of protesters on his roller sneakers, he added: “One police officer said to me at the last rally in March: ‘If you number about 5,000, we will beat you up; if you number 50,000, we won’t touch you; but if you number 500,000, we will march along with you.’ So today we won’t end up beaten up.”
Clashes began as cordons of riot police, municipal service trucks and police vans blocked the bridge leading to the Kremlin, leaving only a narrow path for marchers to reach Bolotnaya Square, where a stage had been set up for opposition speakers. Harsh words turned to pushing and shoving as the crowd grew denser along the police line.
“Let’s have a party at the Kremlin tonight!” a young protester shouted. Another responded, “There are free cigarettes and drinks in the Kremlin up for grabs.”
The crowd laughed and pushed harder. The police raised their truncheons and a melee ensued.
Police said they arrested more than 250 protesters, the largest number detained since protests in December over disputed parliamentary elections brought more than 100,000 people into the streets. At least 10 people were taken to Moscow hospitals with injuries.
Nemtsov and fellow opposition leaders Alexei Navalny and Sergei Udaltsov were arrested. The police then declared the rally over and began pushing protesters off the square.
“From my point of view the police acted softly,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, said Sunday night in an interview with the television network Dozhd. “I would rather they acted tougher.”
But Gennady Gudkov, deputy chief of the lower house of parliament’s security committee, said police provoked the clashes.
“The protest movement is getting radicalized because the authorities refuse to conduct a dialogue with the opposition,” said Gudkov, who witnessed the clashes. “We don’t see any real concessions from the Kremlin to the civic society, and naturally the most active protesters who don’t see any other options to express their demands resort to violence.”
