Anti-Kremlin protest in Moscow

Original: Anti-Kremlin protest in Moscow

Police thwarted a banned anti-Kremlin protest in central Moscow on Sunday, seizing demonstrators and shoving them into trucks. Organizers said 130 people were detained around the capital but police put the number at 90. The opposition movement headed by fierce Kremlin critic and former chess champion Garry Kasparov said the co-leader of the group was one of those seized, reports AP.
The Other Russia movement organized the protest,to draw attention to Russia's economic troubles and to protest Kremlin plans to extend the presidential term from four years to six. Critics say the constitutional change as part of a retreat from democracy and is aimed at strengthening the grip of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his allies.
Not surprisingly, news broadcasts on the main television networks made no mention of the Moscow crackdown or of protests in St. Petersburg and Vladivostok pokeswoman Marina Litvinovich said.

Dozens of protesters gathered at the third site and marched about a kilometer (half a mile) along a major street, shouting slogans such as "Russia without Putin!" before they dispersed.

Kasparov traveled by car and the march was over when he arrived, Litvinovich said.

Kasparov's Web site said police in Moscow also broke up a protest by a hard-line group of retired generals in a square nearby and detained about 50 participants.The group, the Soviet Officers' Union, could not be reached for comment.

The Moscow police said they detained 90 people. Some of the detainees were members of a pro-Kremlin youth group that staged a counter-demonstration, dropping leaflets from a concert hall rooftop.

Lyudmila Morozova, 61, a nurse from the southern city of Voronezh, had planned to protest in Triumph Square but was put off by the massive police presence. She said the police actions showed that the government address.

Ekho Moskvy