Moscow police arrest anti-Kremlin activists

The demonstrators succeeded in provoking the government to bare its teeth, with police officers arresting hundreds and trying to intimidate journalists.

The day was not without humor, however. After police detained one of the protest organizers, Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion turned democratic activist, a rally speaker declared wryly that Kasparov was "playing chess" with the authorities.

Kasparov and his disparate allies, including a former prime minister and a writer who heads a radical youth group, share the goal of keeping protest alive in a country where Russian President Vladimir V. Putin's government asserts ever-greater centralized control.

Putin enjoys more than 70% support ratings, and many critics question why, given that popularity, his government appears intent on stifling even weak opposition.

At most, 3,000 people made an attempt to protest Saturday in Moscow, but authorities called out 9,000 officers to maintain control.

Some opposition activists argue that the response was proof that Putin's circle is neither as powerful nor as monolithic as it seems.

In recent months, Kasparov and his associates, along with London-based tycoon Boris Berezovsky, a onetime political insider turned fierce Putin critic, have outlined similar visions of how greater democracy might come to Russia. Under their scenario, street protests would keep the spark of dissent alive, and at some point the Kremlin power structure would split, with one faction going over to the opposition. True political competition and greater hope for real democracy could then take hold, they say.

Although critics in Moscow and those outside Russia appear to be working in parallel, Kasparov's group has distanced itself from Berezovsky, who has implied that he is giving financial support to secret opponents of Putin within the Kremlin inner circle.

'Dissenters' March'

Kasparov's group, Other Russia, had announced plans to hold a "Dissenters' March" and rally Saturday centered on Pushkin Square, the Russian capital's premier spot for such events. But they were denied permission after a pro-Kremlin youth group was given a rally permit for the same time and place.