Riot police detained dozens of protesters yesterday who picketed Moscow’s iconic television tower after footage purporting to show people being paid to rally against Vladimir Putin was aired nationally.
An AFP correspondent saw organisers Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Udaltsov being led away with about 30 others sporting the white protest ribbons of the nascent movement against Mr Putin’s 12-year domination of Russia.
The crowd of about 500 chanted “Shame to NTV” and “Russia without Mr Putin” as dozens of helmeted police protected the doors of the country’s main television centre and made periodic arrests.
Moscow Echo radio said the number of those bundled off to various Moscow police stations had reached 100 people as the unsanctioned rally wound down under a grey and drizzly sky.
The Ostankino tower protest aims to cap a growing campaign for Russians to boycott NTV television – a once proudly independent network now run by the media arm of the state-run natural gas monopoly Gazprom.
The station had aired a series of self-proclaimed documentaries in the run-up to Mr Putin’s March 4 election to a third term claiming to back up his charges that the protests were being funded by the West.
Its latest report on Thursday night showed people openly accepting cash payments for attending a small anti-Putin demonstration in Moscow this winter.
But some of those who appeared at the rally told various private media outlets this weekend that they had shown up at the agreed location after responding to an advertisement placed by NTV television itself.