Europe News

Anti-Kremlin activist, journalists arrested in "day of dissent"

Mar 12, 2009, 17:56 GMT

Moscow - Several opposition activist and three reporters were arrested during anti-Kremlin demonstrations in Moscow Thursday, radio Ekho Moskvye reported.

Organizers announced their gathering at the central Tverskaya metro station, but the main protest were held on a stretch of Moscow's ring road as activists tried to avoid police crackdowns on the unsanctioned demonstrations.

A coalition of anti-Kremlin parties linked to former chess Champion Garry Kasparov's opposition movement also held protest in St Petersberg, Sochi and other Russian cities.

None of Thursday's protests, collectively announced as the 'Day of Dissent,' were authorized.

Opposition web sites and Ekho Moskvye reported that correspondents from the Associated Press and Russian newspapers Kommersant and Gazeta.ru were detained by Moscow riot police.

Activist marched with signs protesting the government's response to the financial crisis and calling for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's resignation.

Kasparov himself was in Russia's Black Sea resort town of Sochi, where he met with local residents at odds with government plans for sweeping demolition and construction projects in their communities to ready for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, his spokeswoman said.