“Russia Without Putin” = Anti-Kremlin Rallies In Big Cities / “Strategy 31”

Russian police detained dozens of anti-Kremlin protester s as they tried to demonstrate for the right to assemble on Triumph Square in central Moscow. Similar protests and detentions were reported in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod.

The protesters were heavily outnumbered by riot police. At least 54 of a group of more radical opposition members, led by Eduard Limonov and Sergei Udaltsov, were dragged away to police buses as revelers chanted “Shame” and “Freedom!”

The protest was one of a series of “Strategy 31” demonstrations organized for the 31st day of the month in reference to Article 31 in the Russian constitution that permits peaceful demonstrations.

“The police consistently break up these gatherings and don’t allow us to come together,” he said. “They arrest everyone, one after another. Listen to how the police carry on shouting while the people chant ‘Russia without Putin, Russia without Putin.'”