MOSCOW: Thousands of Russians marched through Moscow yesterday demanding Vladimir Putin resign, as the president took the helm of a loyalist movement designed to broaden his power base.
With helmeted riot police looking on, some 10,000 protesters chanted “Russia without Putin!” and called for the release of activists who face long jail terms over violence at a protest against his inauguration to a third presidential term last year.
Critics accuse Putin, in power since 2000, of clamping down on dissent after he weathered the biggest protests of his rule and returned to the Kremlin following a stint as prime minister.
“We have no democracy here, we have what Putin calls sovereign democracy. That means there is democracy for them, not for us,” said protester Andrei Rusakov, 53.
Protesters held pictures of 12 activists who are being tried over clashes with police at a rally the day before he was sworn in.
A bridge leading across the Moscow River toward the Kremlin was blocked by police lines, bulldozers and water trucks. Police said they detained nine members of a suspended opposition group.
Shortly after the march, Putin, 60, was chosen to lead the Popular Front at a highly choreographed congress of the group he created in 2011 as a source of support to supplement the ruling United Russia, which many Russians mistrust.
In a spectacle that mixed elements of Soviet Communist Party meetings and Western-style political conventions, members chanted Putin’s name after a speech full of patriotic rhetoric.
“We are united by values that are higher than political passions,” Putin told the gathering.
Putin spoke of freedom, human rights and the rule of law in his address but protesters said he has trampled on those values since starting his six-year third term.
Putin has signed laws restricting demonstrations and labeling US-funded civic groups “foreign agents.” Protest leaders are under investigation or on trial in what they say are trumped up charges.
Marchers, hoping to revive flagging protests, focused on the plight of 12 lesser-known activists who face up to eight years in jail over clashes with police in what critics call a Stalin-style show trial meant to scare away ordinary Russians.
“This is a political trial ... it is all clearly falsified,” said Natalya Kavkazskaya, whose son Dmitry, 26, is among the defendants and has been in pre-trial detention since last July.
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Thousands protest against President Putin in Moscow
Thousands protest against President Putin in Moscow
Explosions rock Ukrainian capital ahead of planned talks in Geneva
KYIV: Several explosions shook central Kyiv early Thursday, AFP journalists heard, after officials warned of air raids in the Ukrainian capital ahead of planned talks in Geneva with US representatives on ending the Russian war.
Washington is pushing to bring an end to the war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, which has left hundreds of thousands dead and destroyed swathes of territory, particularly in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported high-speed targets heading toward Kyiv shortly before Tymur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, said Russia was attacking the city with strike drones and ballistic missiles.
“Air defense is operating. Stay in shelters until the alert is cleared!” he said on Telegram.
The attacks were not limited to the capital.
In the northeast, Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said two blasts were heard in the city as Russian Shahed drones targeted the area, warning residents to stay in shelters with “drones and missiles flying toward the city.”
Terekhov later reported a “combined air attack” with impacts in the Shevchenkivsky and Kyivsky districts.
In the southeast, Zaporizhzhia regional chief Ivan Fedorov said the city had come under attack, reporting several explosions and at least one person wounded.
In Kryvyi Rig, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, said a Russian strike wounded an 89-year-old man and sparked a fire that damaged a high-rise building.
Ukraine has faced repeated overnight barrages in recent months as Russia targets cities with missiles and drones amid harsh winter conditions.
Washington is pushing to bring an end to the war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, which has left hundreds of thousands dead and destroyed swathes of territory, particularly in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported high-speed targets heading toward Kyiv shortly before Tymur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, said Russia was attacking the city with strike drones and ballistic missiles.
“Air defense is operating. Stay in shelters until the alert is cleared!” he said on Telegram.
The attacks were not limited to the capital.
In the northeast, Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said two blasts were heard in the city as Russian Shahed drones targeted the area, warning residents to stay in shelters with “drones and missiles flying toward the city.”
Terekhov later reported a “combined air attack” with impacts in the Shevchenkivsky and Kyivsky districts.
In the southeast, Zaporizhzhia regional chief Ivan Fedorov said the city had come under attack, reporting several explosions and at least one person wounded.
In Kryvyi Rig, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration, said a Russian strike wounded an 89-year-old man and sparked a fire that damaged a high-rise building.
Ukraine has faced repeated overnight barrages in recent months as Russia targets cities with missiles and drones amid harsh winter conditions.
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