Led by Sergey Gulyaev, Mikhail Kasyanov and Garry Kasparov, roughly 5,000 marched down St. Petersburg in the March of the Discontented Saturday.
Photo: Mikhail Razuvaev
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Those Who Disagree Marched in St. Petersburg
The opposition coalition of The Other Russia ultimately succeeded in St. Petersburg after the December failure in Moscow. Roughly 5,000 marched down the city’s main Nevsky Avenue in the March of the Discontented Saturday.
In St. Petersburg, The Discontented broke through cordons of the riot police and marched down the Nevsky Avenue of the home city of President Vladimir Putin. The slogans were: “It is our city!” and “Russia without Putin, St. Petersburg without Matvienko!” More than 100 were beaten and detained during this public event of opposition, which the St. Petersburg authorities called “the provocation funded by Berezovsky and Khodorkovsky,” and to which the leaders of The Other Russia referred as the stunning success.
The authorities, which prohibited the march, did utmost to prevent the gathering. The police raided flats of the opposition activists and quite a few were pulled out of busses and trains heading for St. Petersburg from Petrozavodsk and Murmansk. Some unidentified hackers broke the web-sites informing about the event. In the city’s metro, they were constantly warning about destabilizing attempts to be taken during the extremist march.
But defying a police ban, a coalition of liberal opposition parties staged on Saturday what they called a March of the Discontented in St. Petersburg to protest at the Kremlin's tightening grip on power. At least 5,000 took part in the event instead of 2,000 promised by the opposition. They faced 3,000 officers of police and riot police summoned up from St. Petersburg, Karelia, Pskov and Vladimir.
As St. Petersburg authorities had duly prohibited the event, 113 participants faced the unsanctioned action charges. In general, the police started releasing the arrested after 5:00 p.m. Saturday. Three guards of Limonov got 15 days of administrative arrest. All Muscovites arrested during the march, including Limonov, were provided with detention protocols and would be put on trial in Moscow.
The trucks with the riot police could be seen in central St. Petersburg far into the night.
The March of the Discontented was staged by The Other Russia coalition uniting the People’s Democratic Union of Mikhail Kasyanov, United Civil Front of Garry Kasparov and National Bolsheviks of Eduard Limonov.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 05, 2007
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