Anti-Putin marches in Russia
Sunday’s UK Guardian Unlimited said the largest-ever anti-Putin rally in the Russian capital occurred as opposition leader Garry Kasparov was arrested. Kasparov, Russia’s former world chess champion was to have led the march, but he was detained as soon as he emerged from a taxi and driven off to a Moscow court in a police van. The defiant leader was later fined 1,000 rubles ($38.73) and freed.
Two thousand protesters chanting “Russia without Putin: Russia without Putin� were kept in check by 9,000 riot police. The Kremlin is facing the problem of who will lead Russia after Putin is constitutionally obliged to leave office in March 2008, after serving his two terms. Although Kasparov leads his own opposition party, United Civil Front, he doesn’t stand a chance against the Kremlin’s election machine that will effectively place Putin’s preferred successor, either Sergei Ivanov or Dmitry Medvedev, both Putin loyalists.
The BBC online news shows a picture of anti-Putin protesters being detained by Russian riot police and a link to vivid news video. In a major discrepancy, BBC's headline describes this rare opposition march as happening in St. Petersburg, not Moscow. This BBC report lists another opposition leader involved in the protest, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov along with Kasparov. Conflicting figures of protesters are reported: Mr. Kasparov claimed the successful march included 5,000 people, while officials said between 2,000 and 3,000 took part, both comments contradict the Guardian Unlimited's count.
UPDATE: The Yahoo AP news account cleared up the discrepancies. There seem to have been two marches: Saturday in Moscow and Sunday in St. Petersburg, which at the time of writing, was banned and didn't happen yet. The time discrepancies among the articles should eventually catch up with each other and bring the news into focus.