Photo (Courtesy) http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15424040&PageNum=0 Lynn Berry
August 22, 2010 - 11:14PM
AP
Police prevented about 100 opposition activists from marching through Moscow on Sunday with a giant Russian flag and detained two of their leaders, including prominent politician Boris Nemtsov.
The opposition activists were celebrating Flag Day, a holiday honouring the tricolour flag adopted by a newly democratic Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Nemtsov said the decision to stop a march honouring the Russian flag showed the mentality of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.
"The flag is a symbol of freedom and democracy, only not for Putin," Nemtsov said, speaking to The Associated Press from a city police precinct.
The date for the holiday was chosen to celebrate the defeat of a hardline communist coup on August 22, 1991. Boris Yeltsin, who famously climbed on to a tank to lead the resistance against the coup plotters, turned the flag into a symbol of an independent Russia.
When the Soviet Union ceased to exist on December 25 of that year, the white, blue and red flag was raised over the Kremlin.
Nemtsov accused Putin, a former KGB officer, of sharing the mentality of the coup plotters, who were determined to prevent the democratisation of the Soviet Union.
Putin did not support the coup plotters at the time, but as president he lamented the demise of the Soviet Union and rolled back many of the democratic reforms that Yeltsin had introduced.
Nemtsov, who stood with Yeltsin in 1991, served in Russia's government in the 1990s, including two stints as deputy prime minister.
Moscow police said Nemtsov and Mikhail Shneider were detained for trying to lead an unsanctioned march. They had permission to hold a rally, but not to march through central Moscow.
"You get the impression that Nemtsov and Shneider intentionally provoked the police," police spokesman Viktor Biryukov told Russian news agencies.
Opposition marches and rallies are regularly broken up by police. In some cases, officers detain dozens of participants, carrying or pushing them into waiting buses. Most are freed within a day, but some have served jail time or been fined.
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Source: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/russian-police-detain-opposition-leaders-20100822-13b2c.html
August 22, 2010 - 11:14PM
AP
Police prevented about 100 opposition activists from marching through Moscow on Sunday with a giant Russian flag and detained two of their leaders, including prominent politician Boris Nemtsov.
The opposition activists were celebrating Flag Day, a holiday honouring the tricolour flag adopted by a newly democratic Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Nemtsov said the decision to stop a march honouring the Russian flag showed the mentality of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.
"The flag is a symbol of freedom and democracy, only not for Putin," Nemtsov said, speaking to The Associated Press from a city police precinct.
The date for the holiday was chosen to celebrate the defeat of a hardline communist coup on August 22, 1991. Boris Yeltsin, who famously climbed on to a tank to lead the resistance against the coup plotters, turned the flag into a symbol of an independent Russia.
When the Soviet Union ceased to exist on December 25 of that year, the white, blue and red flag was raised over the Kremlin.
Nemtsov accused Putin, a former KGB officer, of sharing the mentality of the coup plotters, who were determined to prevent the democratisation of the Soviet Union.
Putin did not support the coup plotters at the time, but as president he lamented the demise of the Soviet Union and rolled back many of the democratic reforms that Yeltsin had introduced.
Nemtsov, who stood with Yeltsin in 1991, served in Russia's government in the 1990s, including two stints as deputy prime minister.
Moscow police said Nemtsov and Mikhail Shneider were detained for trying to lead an unsanctioned march. They had permission to hold a rally, but not to march through central Moscow.
"You get the impression that Nemtsov and Shneider intentionally provoked the police," police spokesman Viktor Biryukov told Russian news agencies.
Opposition marches and rallies are regularly broken up by police. In some cases, officers detain dozens of participants, carrying or pushing them into waiting buses. Most are freed within a day, but some have served jail time or been fined.
.
.
Source: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/russian-police-detain-opposition-leaders-20100822-13b2c.html
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