Thousands protest for a second day
Russian riot police beat and detained dozens of anti-Kremlin demonstrators on a second day of protests that tested the opposition’s ability to challenge widely popular President Vladimir V. Putin.
As in Moscow a day earlier, only a few thousand people turned out in St. Petersburg to criticize the government. Opposition leaders, however, called that a heartening response in the face of the huge police forces massed against both rallies.
Putin’s foes said the harsh handling of demonstrators would fuel perceptions that Putin is strangling democracy ahead of parliamentary elections in December and a presidential vote next spring. But polls rate Putin as Russia’s most popular political figure.
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