St. Petersburg, Russia – Riot police beat and detained dozens of anti-Kremlin demonstrators Sunday on a second day of protests that tested the opposition’s ability to challenge widely popular President Vladimir Putin.
As in Moscow a day earlier, a few thousand people turned out in St. Petersburg to criticize the government. Opposition leaders called that a heartening response in the face of the huge police forces massed against both rallies.
Putin’s foes said the harsh handling of demonstrators, who included many elderly people, would fuel a growing sense that the leader is strangling democracy ahead of parliamentary elections in December and a presidential vote next spring.
But the opposition is in severe straits. ap polls rate Putin as Russia’s most popular political figure by far, thanks to newfound political stability and rapid economic growth fueled by high world oil prices. That popularity has cowed mainstream politicians in parliament and allowed Putin to strengthen the Kremlin’s powers.
His government controls the main TV news, allowing his critics few appearances on the prime source of information in the country. The Rossiya channel showed only brief footage of the Moscow protest.
Opposition leaders said they were determined to push ahead.
Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion who has become the most prominent figure in opposition factions, called it “truly amazing” that 2,000 protesters would turn out in Moscow to face 9,000 police and interior ministry troops.
