Foreign governments and rights activists on Sunday expressed outrage over mass arrests in Russia and the brutality with which protests were broken up on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration.
The European Union slammed “police brutality and mass arrests” after nearly 1600 protesters including opposition leader Alexei Navalny were on Saturday detained in 27 Russian cities during nationwide rallies ahead of Putin’s swearing-in ceremony for a fourth Kremlin term on Monday.
Thousands had taken to the streets heeding a call from Navalny, a charismatic 41-year-old opposition politician, who was barred from challenging Putin in March’s presidential election and called on Russians to stage rallies under the catchy slogan “Not our Tsar”.
In Moscow, Saint Petersburg and a number of Russian cities the rallies were not authorised and police used force to break up the protests, beating demonstrators with truncheons and dragging them along the ground.
In a new development that shocked many, police in Moscow were helped by pro-Putin activists dressed as Cossacks, a paramilitary class who served as tsarist cavalrymen in imperial Russia.
Amnesty International said its representatives saw the “Cossacks” pummel protesters with whips and fists as police looked on.
Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora rights association, told AFP that several dozen people received injuries, mostly haematomas, and several of them turned to his group for help.
The youngest protester, who turned to Agora, was 13 years old, he said.
In Moscow alone some 700 people including journalists and minors were detained and more than 200 people were held in Russia’s second city Saint Petersburg, said OVD-Info, an independent monitor that tracks arrests.
