Russia detains more than 400 protesters

Member of the Pussy Riot punk group, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, bottom centre, surrounded by journalists, stands in front of police line outside Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow.-AP

More than 400 Russian protesters faced court hearings on Tuesday a day after police detained them at a central Moscow rally, the largest such wave of arrests in nearly two years.

The demonstrators had gathered near Red Square late on Monday in support of activists jailed earlier in the day for staging “mass riots” in May 2012, a key case seen as a symbol of the harsh crackdown on dissent under President Vladimir Putin’s latest term.

Police arrested some 420 demonstrators around the Manezhnaya Square and surrounding streets on various charges, including taking part in an unsanctioned rally and resisting police.

Amnesty International condemned the detentions, saying: “the Russian authorities’ rampant violation of freedom of expression and assembly shows no sign of letting up.”

Many of those detained had had been arrested and released earlier in the day at a separate rally outside the Moscow court that handed out the sentences in the May 2012 case, the last time Russian police had rounded up so many protesters at once.

The detentions came a day after the closing of the Winter Olympic Games in Russia’s southern resort of Sochi and against the backdrop of months of mass, often deadly unrest in neighbouring Ukraine that over the weekend ousted the ex-Soviet country’s pro-Kremlin president.

Among those detained late Monday were the two members of Pussy Riot protest group released from penal colonies last year, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina.

Tolokonnikova wrote on Twitter that the women had been charged with taking part in an unsanctioned rally, an administrative offence punishable with a fine or community service.

Protest leader and runner-up in last year’s Moscow mayoral race Alexei Navalny was also detained and charged with a more serious offence of disobeying police, which carries a maximum punishment of 15 days in jail.

Opposition politician and former cabinet minister Boris Nemtsov was also charged with disobeying police.

Both were taken to Moscow’s Tverskoi’s district court on Tuesday after the spending the night in police custody.

The protesters were demonstrating against the sentencing of eight activists for participating in a May 2012 rally on the eve of Putin’s inauguration for a third presidential term that ended in scuffles with police.

Seven of the activists were sentenced on Monday to terms in penal colonies of between 2 ½ and four years, while the only woman was given a suspended sentence of 3 years and 3 months.

The activists were convicted of “mass riots” and using physical violence against police, charges that were condemned as excessive by their lawyers and supporters.

One activist, 22-year-old Yaroslav Belousov, said that he simply threw a lemon at police ranks as tens of thousands marched in protest against Putin’s return to the presidency.

Most of the activists have been held in custody since 2012, meaning that several will be eligible for parole later this year.

In a separate case on Tuesday, a court in Sochi found two environmental activists guilty of disobeying police after they were arrested on the day of the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

David Khakim was sentenced to four days behind bars and Olga Noskovets was fined 1,000 rubles ($28), the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus group said in a statement.

The activists said they had been waiting at a bus stop when detained.

Both activists had accompanied Pussy Riot’s Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina in Sochi as the punk protest band filmed an anti-Putin video there last week.