News

Riot police beat anti-Kremlin demonstrators in St. Petersburg Sunday in a second day of clashes in Russia as the authorities crushed the attempt of hundreds of demonstrators to stage a march to government buildings at the end of an officially-approved rally on the edge of the city center.Dozens of people were arrested before and during the rally, but most were hauled away as demonstrators asserted their right to march in the face of massed police lines that blocked their route as the rally ended. Riot police waded into the crowd and beat demonstrators, and some radicals tossed bottles and stones at police lines.

In St. Petersburg, police arrested one of the organizers of Sunday’s march as she left her home to attend the rally. Olga Kurnosova, the head of Kasparov’s organization in St. Petersburg, said she was detained before she could even get to the demonstration. Police said she was arrested for a traffic violation, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Some demonstrators were arrested for vocally denouncing President Vladimir Putin and his rule.

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