November 25, 2007
Few Complete Moscow March To Election Commission Building
(RFE/RL)
More than 1,000 people set out for the Moscow offices of Russia's Central Election Commission on November 24 to deliver an opposition appeal for fairness ahead of next month's parliamentary elections. Many arrests later, just a few turned up.
24.11.2007. After the conclusion of the formal March of Dissent, a group of about 100 apparent supporters of National Bolshevik Party leader Eduard Limonov with black flags emblazoned with the hammer and sickle, along with representatives of the United Civic Front and several people with Union of Rightist Forces flags, begin marching down Sakharov Prospect toward the Garden Ring. They cross the Garden Ring, followed by about 1,000 others who had been listening to the speeches. Seemingly confused police officers run after them.
A column of people chanting "We need a different Russia!" and "Putin, leave!" stretches from the Garden to the Boulevard Ring, where their route to the Central Election Commission building is blocked by OMON special police forces.
Soon another group of OMON forces in buses and paddywagons catches up with the protesters. Myasnitskaya Street is cordoned off. Selective arrests begin.
Minutes later, United Civic Front leader Garry Kasparov, Limonov, and For Human Rights leader Lev Ponomarev catch up with the crowd near the Turgrnevskaya metro station. Organizers of the formal rally on Sakharov Prospect appear intent on carrying a Dissenters' resolution to the Central Election Commission. But the group is immediately set upon by OMON forces and plainclothed special-services officers. Ponomarev is detained and allegedly beaten.
Kasparov is protected by his supporters as police make their first attempt to arrest him. But soon he is swept up and detained along with Limonov and Yabloko youth group leader Ilya Yashin, who was urging protesters to leave the area. Union of Rightist Forces Duma candidate Maria Gaidar is detained as well. All are taken to the Basmanny police station.
After the arrest of the opposition leaders, OMON forces begin a methodical clearing out of Myasnitskaya Street. People leaving the site are sporadically assailed by groups of people dressed in civilian clothes and carrying walkie-talkies. The most indignant among them are arrested. By 3 p.m., Myasnitskaya is completely cleared of protesters and journalists.
Some participants in the March of Dissent -- the United Civic Front's Denis Bilunov and Marina Litvinovych -- manage to deliver the protesters' resolution to an official from the Central Election Commission.