Kasparov detained in Russian protest
Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, was detained by police today as supporters of his organisation tried to hold a banned protest march in central Moscow.
An Associated Press photographer saw Kasparov inside a police van, waving and smiling to journalists clustered outside on the edge of Pushkin Square.
Kasparov heads the United Civil Front opposition organisation, which aimed to hold a massive anti-Kremlin protest march today in alliance with other opposition groups who come together under the rubric of Other Russia.
Thousands of police, many of them in helmets and wielding truncheons, were at the square and scores of people were detained. Many of those detained went quietly, but some struggled and were forced into police vehicles by officers holding truncheons around the detainees’ necks.
Other Russia has also called for a massive march in St Petersburg tomorrow. Like the march in Moscow, authorities have forbidden that action.
