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Police could be seen making arrests |
Russian
protesters defying a ban on unapproved rallies have been facing off with
supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow city centre.
Protesters
chanted slogans against the ruling party as the Putin loyalists beat drums and
chanted "Putin, Russia".
Riot police
arrested a number of protesters, including veteran liberal politician Boris
Nemtsov.
Monday saw
Moscow's biggest protest in years against alleged election fraud at Sunday's
parliamentary election.
Mr Putin
has played down losses by his party, United Russia, which won but with just
under 50% of the vote, a sharp drop in its support.
Correspondents
say the result reflects Mr Putin's declining popularity ahead of his bid for
the Russian presidency in March.
Observers
from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) say the
election was slanted in favour of Mr Putin's party, United Russia.
Navalny
jailed
Live video
from Moscow's Triumphal Square, on a major road artery close to the Kremlin,
showed crowds of rival demonstrators shouting slogans on Tuesday evening.
Alexei Navalny is one of Russia's most popular bloggers |
The jerky
footage, broadcast over the internet by the Russian citizen journalism outlet
Ridus, also appeared to show police intervening.
Correspondents
say Mr Nemtsov and other protesters were hauled off to waiting police vehicles.
On Monday,
police made at least 300 arrests and two key figures in the protest were both
jailed for 15 days on Tuesday.
Well-known
anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny was convicted of obstructing the course
of justice and Ilya Yashin, leader of the Solidarity party, was convicted of a
similar offence.
The arrest
of the two men was heavily tweeted by Russian bloggers, who circulated photos
of Mr Navalny and others in custody.
"There
is not a single doubt that my case is under the special control of the party of
crooks and thieves," he told reporters in court ahead of being charged,
referring to United Russia.
The Russian
interior ministry has denied any extra security measures in Moscow, saying that
police and troop movements in the city were a "rotation".
Its press
service told Interfax news agency that 51,500 police including 2,000 interior
troops had been on a state of alert since 1 December, as part of election
preparations.
"Statements
that extra forces are being drafted into Moscow do not correspond to
reality," it said.
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