Crackdown stays, Russia rounds up more oppn activists

About 100 activists, holding white flowers, gathered near the Yabloko party headquarters and headed to a downtown site where they were to hold a rally, when some younger protesters unfurled banners of the banned National Bolshevik Party.

The police moved in, detaining young marchers first and then several dozen other protesters.

When several hundred demonstrators reached the Dvortsovaya Square in front of the State Hermitage Museum, they found it tightly blocked by riot police. Police quickly rounded up another 50-70 protesters.

The violence occurred amid an election campaign in which some opposition political groups have been sidelined by new election rules or have complained of being hobbled by official harassment.

On Saturday, Russian authorities arrested Kasparov, one of President Vladimir Putin’s harshest critics, and sentenced him to five days in prison after he helped lead a protest. Kasparov was charged with organising an unsanctioned procession of at least 1,500 people against Putin and chanting anti-Government slogans.