Demonstrating against Putin in Russia it’s something one has to think twice before doing. The leader of the opposition party, politician and former chess world champion Garry Kasparov, has been detained for rallying against the Russian president in Moscow, Echo Moskvy radio reported on Saturday.

The militants were trying to hand in a resolution for free elections at the central election commission, but their march ended with many of the government critics being arrested.

The rally was authorized, but authorities didn’t give permission to the protesters to march to the election commission one week ahead of the December 2 parliamentary elections for security reasons. With the protesters disobeying, approximately 1,000 OMON security forces and soldiers were deployed in order to block the activists.

Police forces were deployed in several other cities throughout Russia where dozens of people wanting to take part in rallies of the opposition alliance Another Russia were eventually arrested. Some of the biggest rallies measured by number of arrests made by the Russian police were reported in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, while a rally in Samara was called off after police detained organizers.

At the protest held in the Russian capital about 3,000 people had gathered according to the organizers’ estimations, while police said they were no more than 1,000 partakers.
The police forces have seized the election placards, banners and flyers of the protesters.

Criticizing Putin in Russia proved to be very dangerous and the first example that comes to one’s mind is the death of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

The honored Russian journalist earned international praise for her opposition to the Chechen conflict as well as for the reporting of human rights abuses in the war-torn country.

Politkovskaya was murdered in a contract-style shooting just in front of her apartment on October 7, 2006. In the meantime, her death has become a symbol for the lack of civil liberties and safety of those who dear to criticize President Putin’s rule.

During a rally that commemorated the death of Politkovskaya on the 7th October, the presidential candidate for The Other Russia party Garry Kasparov lid a candle in front of the home where Politkovskaya lived and was killed. For now he was just incarcerated, but who knows what the future may bring him if he keeps criticizing.