Former Chess Champion Is Detained at March in Moscow

The New York Times
April 15, 2007

By ANDREW E. KRAMER and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

MOSCOW, April 14 – Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion turned
opposition politician in Russia, was arrested with nearly 200 other
protesters during a rally in Moscow on Saturday that ended in clashes with
riot troops.

The rally, the third so-called Dissenters’ March held by a loose
antigovernment coalition known as Other Russia, was noteworthy because
authorities aggressively pursued the organizers, including President
Vladimir V. Putin’s former prime minister, Mikhail M. Kasyanov, whom the
police jostled but did not arrest. Mr. Kasparov was later fined and
released.

The rally was principally supported by Mr. Kasyanov and Mr. Kasparov, who
leads a group here called the United Civil Front.

Essentially barred from access to television, members of Other Russia have
embraced street protests as the only platform to voice their opposition
ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections next
March. Early this month, Mr. Kasyanov’s and Mr. Kasparov’s Web sites were
blocked, though it was unclear by whom.

The marches have become a test both of the determination of the opposition
and the willingness of the government to use force to prevent it from
gaining traction in street politics in the big cities.

Other Russia was refused a permit to march in Moscow, but defied the ban, as
it has in two previous marches in St. Petersburg and the Volga River city of
Nizhny Novgorod. Authorities said roughly 9,000 police officers and Interior
Ministry troops, known as OMON, were deployed in Moscow on Saturday.

A Moscow police spokesman said 170 people were arrested; organizers said the
number was much higher.

In addition to Mr. Kasparov, who was arrested while walking on Moscow’s
Tverskaya Street before arriving at the event, the police detained Maria
Gaidar, a daughter of a former prime minister, and Ilya Yashin, the head of
the youth wing of the Yabloko opposition party.

`I’m arrested,’ Mr. Kasparov, who resigned from professional chess but is
still the world’s highest-ranked player in the World Chess Federation, said
in a telephone interview from inside a detention van. `It was an act of
banditry.’

During a break in a hearing at a central Moscow court on charges of shouting
antigovernment slogans, according to Reuters, Mr. Kasparov said: `Today the
regime showed its true colors, its true face. I believe this was a great
victory for the opposition because people got through and the march
happened.’

Eventually Mr. Kasparov was fined $38 and released. He said he would appeal
the charges.

Mr. Kasyanov, the former prime minister, was surrounded by riot police
officers as he approached the rally on foot. `Everybody should ask
themselves what is happening in our government,’ Mr. Kasyanov said, as the
police closed in. `We respect the Constitution and demand the authorities do
the same.’

The police grabbed Mr. Kasyanov’s bodyguards, arresting them, and Mr.
Kasyanov tumbled backward but was caught by the crowd. `Officers, don’t
fulfill illegal orders,’ Mr. Kasyanov shouted. `Officers, stop!’

In defiance of city authorities, demonstrators attempted to march from
Pushkin Square, a prominent public space, to Turgenev Square, about a mile
away. Most of the several hundred who set off were arrested or dispersed
before arriving at their destination. Interior Ministry troops tried to
block the way by setting up cordons ahead of the marchers, in a cat and
mouse chase through central Moscow.

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