1200 detained amid anti-Putin protests in Russian Federation

Authorities said they arrested about 300 protesters for people arrangement guards Saturday, according to Russian state-run information bureau TASS.

The so-called “Bolotnaya cases”, named after the square close to the Kremlin where the protests took place, cast a chill on Russia’s opposition scene, which has become increasingly marginal since. It cited its own sources at the Moscow protest as saying pro-Kremlin Cossacks had beaten protesters with leather whips, sparking a fight. Police said the crowd numbered some 1,500 people, but officials routinely downplay the size of opposition protests in Russian Federation. A recent survey showed people’s readiness to participate in protests at the lowest level since 2010.

“For Putin any concession is a sign of weakness, so there shouldn’t be any expectation of a change in foreign policy”, said Konstantin Kalachev, the head of the Political Expert Group think tank in Moscow. “He has been doing it for 18 years and has completed nothing good for it”, stated Moscow demonstrator Dmitry Nikitenko. “He should leave for good”.

Almost 1,600 protesters were detained in 27 cities across Russian Federation, according to OVD-Info, an independent monitor that tracks arrests. Interfax news agency reported a number of Navalny’s supporters were detained on Friday – a day ahead of the protests. In St. Petersburg, hundreds walked down Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s central thoroughfare.

In January, Navalny was also detained over an unauthorised rally and was formally charged then released.

Russian police detain a protester at a demonstration against President Vladimir Putin in Pushkin Square, Moscow.

Putin has dismissed Navalny as a troublemaker bent on sowing chaos on behalf of Washington.

Navalny, his fiercest competitor, was barred from your race due to the fact he conveys a fraud conviction, which he ignored like a politically inspired move to keep him off the ballot.

The protests come days before the scheduled inauguration of Putin for his fourth term as president, which would extend his effective political control of Russian Federation into its third decade.

Mr Navalny has called nationwide demonstrations several times in the past year, and their turnout has rattled the Kremlin.

One of those grabbed at a Moscow porotest was opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who had only just began to address the crowd when black-uniformed police snatched him from the microphone.

According to the police, about 1,500 people took part in the rally.

Numerous protesters were charged with the administrative violation of disobeying police and are being released pending hearings.

The U.S. State Department was critical of the heavy-handed police action.

Some arrests by police were reported, but no overall figure was available.