Russia Protests: Occupation Of Moscow Square

Associated Press

MOSCOW — Several dozen people continue to occupy a square in central Moscow after some of their fellow protesters were detained Wednesday night.

Police detained about 20 activists at Kudrinskaya Square where demonstrators had moved after police uprooted them from another camp in the latest move in a broadening crackdown on opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

Twenty to thirty protesters remained on the square Thursday morning. Some were catching up on sleep, lying on benches. Others were doing morning exercises.

A demonstration of at least 20,000 a day before Putin's May 7 inauguration turned into a fierce battle with police. In the following days, opposition founded a camp on a tree-lined central boulevard before it was uprooted Tuesday night and moved to Kudrinskaya square.

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• Protesters try to block the street in downtown near the opposition camp in Moscow, late Wednesday, May 17, 2012. Russian police uprooted a protest camp in central Moscow that has become a center of opposition activity, rousting demonstrators in an early morning raid Wednesday hours before a deadline to leave. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

• Police officers detain a protester, with Opposition leader Ilya Yashin, foreground second left, in the opposition camp in Moscow, Thursday, May 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

• Police officers try to disperse protesters in the opposition camp in Moscow, late Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

• Police officers disperse protesters in the opposition camp in Moscow, late Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

• Russian youth opposition protesters, evicted by police from a protest camp at Chistiye Prudy, relax at a new site chosen for their camp in downtown Moscow, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

• Russian youth opposition protesters, evicted by police from a protest camp at Chistiye Prudy, relax at a new site chosen for their camp in downtown Moscow, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

• Russian youth opposition protesters, evicted by police from a protest camp at Chistiye Prudy, relax at a new site chosen for their camp in downtown Moscow, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

• Two opposition followers with a white ribbon, as a symbol of protest, rest at the site of one of 7 sky-scrapers built by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin after they were disperse by police from the park around Chistiye Prudy, or Clear Ponds, in Moscow, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. (AP Photo /Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Comments

[homer68]

05:07 PM on 05/17/2012

Russian hippies

[mcpackerfan]

03:23 PM on 05/17/2012

Looks a lot like Haught/Ashbury

[teddy333]

01:33 PM on 05/17/2012

20 to 30? Dismal turnout. But it's a start. There's a lot on the line to protest. I've been there and know all about it.

[AfisF]

01:09 PM on 05/17/2012

If anyone is interested, a Russian news network took an interview from the guy chilling in the beach chair. He's unemployed (surprise!) because he's father recently died and the guy got his apartment in the fathers will. Now he's renting it out, and I guess fighting the good fight (lazily). As much as I'd like to relax all day in the sun, near a fountain, I have a job to go to. And yes, they are a nuasance, blocking roads (thanks protestors, taking 1.5 hours ride home was becoming too comftorable, making it a 2 hour ride is far more fun) and occupying public places so that no one esle can relax there. Is it just me or is this occupy nonesense becoming a fad among young people (like planking) just so they can take pictures to show their friends and brag about how 'they are making a difference'? Is protest tourism next? BTW HP, get your facts straight, the protestors are being EVICTED because the local residents are taking them to court. Hardly a crack down.

[Coinyer101]

08:42 AM on 05/17/2012

Solidarity, Occupiers!!

[RedIvan88]

08:05 AM on 05/17/2012

its funny because I was in Russia last week and didn't see any protesters. When I asked local Russians they gave a reaction similar to what people give about OWS in the USA, that these people are fringe radicals and we should just ignore them

[Alexey Braguine]

08:52 AM on 05/17/2012

I had the same reaction from Muskovites I talked to. Chistie Prudi is a very nice area

[KIVPossum]

09:50 AM on 05/17/2012

Same feedback I am getting from friends in town

[KIVPossum]

05:35 AM on 05/17/2012

I doubt the bride in the photo is part of the occupy group. Traditional for brides to make their show walks to city landmarks and pose for the bevy of hired photographers in tow.

[Alexey Braguine]

08:53 AM on 05/17/2012

Lots of weddings in Russia lately.

[RedIvan88]

06:48 PM on 05/17/2012

Yeah they turn up anywhere with any remote aesthetic or historical/patriotic significance.