Planners from the Other Russia coalition opted not to obtain permission from city officials, describing past instances where authorities responded by banning the meetings and using force against participants.  On Wednesday, police leadership warned that they would stop any public protest “not cruelly, but harshly.”

In Moscow, where a reported 4,000 police were put on duty, around 200 protestors marched down Prospekt Mira (Avenue of Peace), blocking traffic and chanting “Freedom for political prisoners!” , “We need another Russia!” , and “Russian without Putin!”  Preliminary reports said that 15 people, including journalists from the Kommersant newspaper and the Associated Press, were briefly detained by police.

Protestors in other cities, from Orel to Yekaterinburg to Magnitogorsk, expressed their own grievances, from inflating food costs to discontent with how recent regional elections were handled.

In the week leading up to the Day of Dissent, opposition activists reported abuses and intimidation on the part of police.  A handful of young members from the banned National Bolshevik party were arrested Tuesday and sentenced to two months arrest on charges of “hooliganism.”  Oleg Kozlovsky, the leader of the Oborona (Defense) movement, was similarly arrested on the campus of Moscow State University Wednesday with three other activists.  The group was distributing leaflets and informing students about the Day of Dissent using a megaphone.  Oborona later released a press-release saying Kozlovsky had run away from the police station, although the other activists remained behind bars pending a court date on charges of petty hooliganism.

The first Day of Dissent took place on January 31st, 2009.  Before that, opposition groups had staged larger demonstrations known as Marches of Dissent.  Organizers said they decided to decentralize the protests in an effort to keep police from shutting them down.

Aleksandr Averin, a member of the executive committee of the Other Russia opposition coalition, said opposition events would take place in 20-30 cities.

In Moscow, the demonstration will take place by the Tverskaya metro station, starting at 7:00 PM local time.  Other locations would be published as they were finalized, the Other Russia press-service reported.

Averin said the Other Russia may not seek permission from the Moscow mayor’s office, who have previously banned the protests and refused to sanction events put on by the group.  Organizers have called the behavior unconstitutional.

The first Day of Dissent took place on January 31st.  The group has also organized other protests, called Marches of Dissent since 2006.

The major slogans for the event are: “Putin must resign!”  “We have the right to protest!”  and “Enough lies!”

Protestors in the capital braved freezing temperatures, carried placards, and railed against the Russian government’s response to the economic crisis.  Demonstrators called on the government to resign.

Small pickets took place around Moscow, starting in South-eastern part of the city.  Early in the day, members of the banned National Bolshevik party lit flares and waved flags near the Vykhino metro station, close to where a 20-year-old activist, Anton Stradymov, had been beaten to death on January 14th.

Later in the day, National Bolshevik leader Eduard Limonov was arrested in the central Triumfalnaya Ploschad (Triumph square).  Limonov had walked into the square carrying a copy of the Russian constitution, referring to it to its guarantee to freedom of assembly.  The opposition leader, who was surrounded by guards and supporters, was then pulled from the square and arrested by OMON riot police.  A number of Limonov’s supporters, who chanted “We need another Russia,” and “Russia without Putin,” were also detained.

Around 250 members of Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front (UCF) and the Solidarity opposition movement rallied on Ulitsa Bolshaya.  Masked men with metal rods came from behind the demonstrators and attacked the group, grabbing at banners and injuring several of the protestors.  The attackers, who were untouched by police, then drove away in waiting cars.  UCF activist Aleksei Kazakov, who had a bloodied face and nose, continued marching and eventually called for an ambulance.  Fellow demonstrators waiting with Kazakov were subsequently arrested by police.  The protestors suspect the attackers were members of a pro-Kremlin youth movement, Young Russia.

A separate protest put on by the Russian communist party brought out around 1000 participants in Moscow, who called for a return of the centrally planned Soviet economy.

Several thousand pro-Kremlin youth rallied in a different part of the city in an effort to back the government’s anti-crisis measures.

In other parts of Russia, people also took to the streets to protest rising prices and what they call a poor government response to a rapidly slowing economy.  Demonstrations took place in St. Petersburg, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Blagoveshchensk, Omsk, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, Penza, Voronezh, Tomsk and Orel.

In the far-eastern city of Vladivostok, over 2000 people marched over 5 km (3.1miles) in protest of higher import duties on foreign used cars.  Imports of foreign autos from Japan and Asia have dropped by 95 percent since the new duties took effect.  The demonstrators called for the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Throughout the day, the United Civil Front, the Kasparov.ru online opposition newspaper and other human rights groups reported that their telephone lines were under attack.  Reaching rights lawyers and reporting what was happening was impossible, the groups said.

Sochi – Activist hospitalized after attack

Lyudmila Shestak, a social activist in the Black Sea town of Sochi was attacked outside her home on January 28th.  Shestak, a member of the Sochi branch of the Russian Geographical Society, told the Sobkor®ru news agency that she was in the hospital with neck and head injuries, and that she had been treated for a concussion of the brain.  The activist connected her attack with an upcoming protest meeting, set to take place in the resort town January 31st.  She said her purse and belongings were not taken.

Shestak has taken an active role in defending land-owner rights and other issues surrounding the 2014 Winter Olympics, which are set to take place in Sochi.

Moscow – Officer receives anonymous threats

Sergei Mozgovoy, president of the Freedom of Conscience Institute and a captain in the Russian Naval Forces, has been receiving anonymous threats not to take part in an opposition demonstrations on January 31st.  The officer described the threats on January 30th to the Sobkor®ru news agency.

An unnamed man has called Mozgovoy for several days, warning him not to lead officers to the “March of Dissent,” cursing at him, then hanging up.  Mozgovoy speculated that the calls could be coming from local police, who had taken down names and information from officers arrested at a previous demonstration.

The Other Russia will stage a “Day of Dissent” on January 31st in Moscow.  Events will also take place in St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Orel, Tomsk, Penza, Omsk, and other cities.

In a separate case, police visited a man mistakenly arrested at an earlier “March of Dissent.”  Dmitri Myshkin, a resident of the Moscow suburb of Khimki, explained what happened to the  Sobkor®ru news agency.

Myshkin said he had never intended to protest, but was arrested on December 14th, when police were indiscriminately detaining pedestrians at a March of Dissent.  His arrest was ruled unlawful on January 16th.

Myshkin said three officers came to his door on November 30th and advised him not to take part in the Day of Dissent on January 31st.

Tyumen – Opposition activists arrested

A number of opposition activists have been arrested in the central Russian city of Tyumen ahead of protests scheduled for January 31st.  As the Kasparov.ru online newspaper reports, Andrei Kutuzov, a professor at Tyumen University and journalist Rustam Fakhretdinov are among those detained.  According to the newspaper, a total of seven people have been arrested in the city, and several have not been charged with any crime.

On Thursday morning, Kutuzov was visited by officers from an anti-extremism unit who searched his home and seized his computer.  Agents also searched the home of his parents.

Later in the day, Fakhretdinov was charged with vandalism, and his home was also searched.  Police took paints, stencils and literature, as well as painted banners with slogans calling for the defense of human rights.

Friends of the arrested men said their detention was most likely an attempt to keep them from demonstrating on January 31st.

Novosibirsk – Activists placed under administrative arrest

In the eastern Russian city of Novosibirsk, police are rounding up the organizers of a demonstration put on by the Association of Active Citizens of Russia (TIGR).  The group, first formed to bring together car lovers opposed to new import duties on foreign autos, plans to hold a rally on February 1st.  Sergei Kononov, who filed paperwork to register the protest, was arrested from his home on January 28th, and is being held under administrative detention, according to the group’s press-agency.

City officials have not sanctioned the group’s demonstration.  Organizers say they have been ignored, and have pledged to hold a protest regardless.

Aleksei Umerenko, another organizer, was arrested on January 22nd, and sentenced the next day to 10 days administrative arrest.  His charge was the same as Kononov’s: failing to pay an administrative fine by the deadline.

Another of the group’s leaders in the far-eastern city of Khabarovsk, Andrei Dudenok, was sentenced to 12 days administrative arrest for identical charges on January 22nd.

TIGR has called the arrests “political,” saying they were intended to throw their upcoming demonstrations.

Activists will speak out for protecting constitutional rights and the freedom of assembly, according to Mamina. Demonstrators will also call for the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Government, which they say is responding ineffectually to the economic crisis.

The Other Russia, which brings together a group of Russian political parties including Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front, has previously staged demonstrations named “Marches of Dissent” across Russia. In the past, city officials have refused to sanction protests, and several demonstrations were violently disrupted by police. Estimated attendance has numbered in the thousands at each protest.

Moscow authorities refused to grant a permit for the most recent March of Dissent on December 14th 2008. In response, one of the Other Russia’s leaders, Eduard Limonov, announced on December 15th that working with officials was a fruitless effort.

“In past years, the [Moscow] Mayor’s office has simply mocked us,” he said. “You can’t call it anything else. They have denied us the opportunity to hold an event, saying that the site [for the demonstration] is already taken.”

Limonov suggested that organizers would no longer seek permission from city officials, and that his group would switch from large-scale, central Marches of Dissent to a de-centralized Day of Dissent.

“We no longer want to schedule meetings with those who beat us,” he said.

Still, a spokesman for the Other Russia told RIA Novosti that individual groups would choose for themselves whether to apply for permits from authorities.