Russia breaks up anti-Putin rally, detains leaders
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Police officers detain opposition leader Alexei Navalny during an unauthorised rally in Lubyanka Square in Moscow on Saturday, Dec 15, 2012. Four opposition leaders were detained on Saturday to stop them from taking part in a banned rally against President Vladimir Putin in front of the former KGB security police's headquarters in Moscow. -- PHOTO: AP
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian police on Saturday detained dozens of people, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as they broke up an anti-Vladimir Putin rally that mustered hundreds in Moscow in defiance of an official ban.
Scores of Muscovites, many holding white roses, defied the authorities by gathering at Lubyanka Square, the seat of the FSB security services, despite temperatures of minus 14 degrees Celsius.
Police pushed protesters from the square and shoved some into vans two hours into the protest, following warnings that the rally would be broken up.
"By the end it was rough," Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Kremlin-linked human rights council told Dozhd television.
