The man was being held in a cell for administrative detainees at Moscow’s Khorosheva-Mnevniki station. A federal warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Federal investigators said an investigation into the incident was underway. They added that preliminary information suggested the cause of death was heart failure.

The detainee’s death is particularly suspicious because three police officers from the same station were arrested last October on suspicion of murdering a 22-year-old Muscovite. The officers allegedly had a conflict over money with the victim, whose body was found with nearly 80 stab wounds on September 11.

In connection with the murder case, the chiefs at the Khorosheva-Mnevniki station were summarily fired on October 31. A commission from Moscow’s central police headquarters was sent to reevaluate the station’s entire staff.

This latest death also comes one month after a man died in a Krasnoyarsky Krai hospital after providing evidence to investigators at a police station. During their discussion, police say the man acted aggressively and tried to leave the station. One of the officers forced him back into his chair. Soon after, the man began to complain that he felt ill. Police called an ambulance and he was sent to a hospital, where he died two weeks later. The cause of his death is still under investigation.

Deaths in police custody figured as one of the largest scandals of 2012 in Russia. In particular, a man detained for public intoxication died after police sodomized him with a champagne bottle, leading to the dismissal of Tatarstan’s chief of police. The cases also serve as a reminder of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose death in pretrial detention sparked a dispute that has evolved into a diplomatic firestorm between Russia and the United States.

Many citizen videos show that the heavy police lines were well inside the rally’s official perimeter long before it was scheduled to conclude at 7:30 p.m. This illegal presence served no purpose other than to provoke conflict. All of the clashes and all of the arrests took place inside the authorized protest zone. Tensions were already high with the city paralyzed under such heavy police presence that it approached martial law. Several of the protest’s leaders, Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, and Sergei Udaltsov, were actually arrested at the stage of the rally. Another protest leader, Garry Kasparov, asked, “Why is there such police pressure against an officially sanctioned rally? Every single one of our marches have been peaceful, so why provoke clashes now? The only reason is that they are nervous and want to portray us as dangerous radicals.”

The Kremlin’s repression tactics were the same they have used against the “Strategy 31” marchers, but the results are very different when there are tens of thousands of protestors instead of hundreds. The protestors were not the “extremists” advertised by the state-controlled media. They were citizens fed up with years of lies and corruption. Today’s events make it clearer than ever that Russian society will not be satisfied with anything less than Putin’s exit from power, and that the protests will continue until he is gone. It is equally clear that Putin has chosen the path of confrontation and that he will not shy away from violence against the Russian people.

Videos and further reading:

Beaten protestor carried away as crowd chants “Murderers!” at police
Frank Luntz was at the rally and reports for Fox News
Photo gallery of the day’s violence
Remarkable photo of a child facing rows of riot police

In Moscow, Triumfalnaya Square was cordoned off by police from early morning hours, with officers telling journalists that “some sort of event” would be held there in the evening.

As the rally began and cries of “freedom of assembly always and everywhere” and “freedom to political prisoners” could be heard among the 200-strong crowd, riot police pushed a crowd of journalists and photographers away from the square towards an underground pedestrian passage and set about detaining the activists. Among those arrested were Solidarity members Ilya Yashin and Anastasia Rybachenko, Other Russia party leader Eduard Limonov, and United Civil Front Moscow leader Lolita Tsariya.

According to Kasparov.ru, numerous activists were severely beaten by police while being detained. Doctors called to a police station where Rybachenko was being held advised her to have her neck examined in the station’s trauma center. Other Russia member Konstantin Tofimtsev was also reportedly beaten and placed in a cell separate from the other detainees.

Moscow city authorities had refused to sanction the protest on the basis that “archeological work” was being done on Triumfalnaya Square. While the square has been cordoned off for more than a year due to supposed construction plans for an underground parking garage, virtually no work has been done over that time.

In St. Petersburg, between 400 and 1000 Strategy 31 protesters attempted to hold an unsanctioned march along Nevsky Prospect. They were blocked by police, however, who then began detaining participants. According to local Other Russia leader Andrei Dmitriyev, many were kept in police holding overnight.

Approximately 150 protesters came out to a Strategy 31 protest in Rostov-on-Don. According to local United Civil Front and Solidarity leader Boris Baty, oppositionists were forced to go through several different courts before local authorities would sanction the event.

In Omsk, opposition organizers were prevented by local authorities from holding a regular rally, and local United Civil Front Secretary Viktor Korb explained to the gathered crowd that the group was therefore forced to hold a small public meeting instead.

Rallies were also held in the cities of Saratov, Sochi, Ryazan, Tomsk, and others.

Activists from various Russian civil and political movements have been holding Strategy 31 rallies for more than two years across the country. As a general rule, the protests are not granted sanction by local authorities and are routinely violently dispersed by riot police.

Video of the march in St. Petersburg:

The new regulations, laid out in a document governing the use of “non-lethal weapons” by the police, say that these and other “special measures” can be taken against oppositionists if they block automobile or pedestrian traffic.

Police will also be able to set dogs or use billy clubs on suspects of certain administrative crimes such as serving beer in undesignated areas or speeding, in addition to the aforementioned tear gas and tasers.

In the case that police are unable to detain a suspect, they will now be allowed to “flag him with a colored marking substance.”

The 22nd article of Russia’s federal law “On the Police” dictates that police have no right to use these deterrents “while suppressing unlawful meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches or pickets that are peaceful in nature and do not disturb public order, transportation, communications or organizations.” Ostensibly, the new regulations take advantage of the clause stipulating the violation of transport – a charge often leveled at rallying oppositionists who have attempted to get city authorities to close off roads for their pre-announced demonstrations.

In Moscow, at least 35 people were detained at Triumfalnaya Square immediately at the beginning of the rally at 6:00 pm. Some protesters had attempted to hold a sit-in near the entrance to the Mayakovskaya metro station, which is directly across from the square and for the past year has been cordoned off by a construction barrier despite the complete lack of any actual construction for the vast majority of that time. Sitting on the ground with arms linked, the protesters called for “a Russia without Putin” and “freedom to political prisoners.”

According to eyewitnesses, police threw journalists out of their path, surrounded the protesters, unlinked their arms and dragged them along the ground, all amidst cries of “fascists!” from the onlooking crowd, towards a row of police buses.

Those detained included members of the opposition movement Solidarity, the Other Russia political party, the Left Front opposition group, and others.

One Other Russia activist, Simon Verdiyan, was reportedly severely beaten by police officers in a bus on its way to the Presnenskoe police precinct.

Another 22 ralliers attempted to stage a sit-in around the Triumfalnaya Square construction barrier. In an unprecedented move, police refrained from arresting Strategy 31 co-organizer and Other Russia party leader Eduard Limonov when he joined the sit-in. In general, Limonov is arrested immediately upon arriving at Strategy 31 rallies.

A Kasparov.ru correspondent reported that other protesters gradually joined in the sit-in, which at 6:40 pm numbered at about 60 people.

Some activists taking part in the sit-in, led by Limonov, then began to march towards the nearby Peking Hotel but were stopped by police. Limonov and one of his guards were allowed to pass after the Other Russia leader explained that he was trying to reach his car to go home. The remaining marchers were ordered to disperse.

Remarkably, the remaining sit-in participants were allowed to sit unhindered by police for the remainder of the evening. At 8:00 pm they rose and, promising to return, left the square.

Police did arrest a group of “provocateurs” who, according to Kasparov.ru, “tried to give money to oppositionists and bystanders,” as if they were being paid to partake in the rally. Members of pro-Kremlin youth groups are often found at opposition rallies spreading false rumors that ralliers are paid by Westerners to spoil Russia’s image abroad.

The arrested oppositionists were charged with a variety of offences, including violating order at a rally, disobeying police orders, and petty hooliganism. Like the overwhelming majority of previous Strategy 31 rallies, Wednesday’s event was not granted official sanction from Moscow city authorities, thus rendering the rally illegal. However, as of late Wednesday night, chief organizer Eduard Limonov had not been arrested and there were no reports of detainees being charged with participation in or organization of an unsanctioned rally.

According to Moscow city police, only 12 people had been detained, 8 of whom they say were “consciously blocking pedestrian and automobile traffic on Triumfalnaya Square.”

The day before the rally, as is routine, Triumfalnaya Square was completely surrounded by police buses in order to transfer detainees to the police station the following evening.

Sixty-six people were detained at the previous Strategy 31 rally in Moscow on July 31.

In St. Petersburg, 40 out of the approximately 300 Strategy 31 protesters holding a sit-in at Gostiny Dvor were detained, including United Civil Front Executive Director Olga Kurnosova. According to Gazeta.ru, police literally lifted the protesters from the ground and carried them into police buses, all in under two minutes.

In addition, 10 out of a separate group of 20 Strategy 31 ralliers at Dvortsovaya Square were also arrested.

Like in Moscow, St. Petersburg city authorities refused to sanction Wednesday’s rally, despite being for the first time in the history of Strategy 31 under a new governor – acting Governor Georgy Poltavchenko. Oppositionists had hoped that the transfer of highly unpopular United Russia Governor Valentina Matvienko to her new post as Federation Council Speaker might give the city government a chance to rethink its attitude towards adhering to Russians’ constitutional right to free assembly.

Strategy 31 rallies were also held on Wednesday in dozens of other cities across Russia.

In Saratov, Rostov-on-Don and Nizhny Novgorod, small protests of about 30 people each were held without any police crackdown. In comparison, 16 people were arrested at July’s Strategy 31 rally in Nizhny Novgorod, with three sentenced to five days of administrative arrest each. Rostov-on-Don city authorities refused to sanction the rally on the basis that someone had come four minutes earlier asking for a permit to hold their own rally “to inform citizens about electoral legislation.” Whoever this person was, they didn’t show up Wednesday evening at rally location.

Five people were detained at a rally in Ryazan, where local authorities also refused to sanction the event at its location in a central city square, proposing that it be moved to the outskirts.

On August 30, police arrested oppositionist Aleksei Panov in Arkhangelsk, supposedly for an unpaid fine. Panov insists that the arrest was politically motivated in order to prevent the next day’s protest.

In addition, reports also surfaced on Wednesday that one of the organizers of Strategy 31 in Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Legedin, has left Russia and is attempting to gain political asylum in Great Britain. Criminal charges of slander were filed against Legedin on July 15, but the oppositionist insists that the charges were politically motivated. He is currently awaiting a response from British authorities.

Legedin’s arrest comes after the conviction of Yekaterinburg’s other Strategy 31 leader, local Yabloko party deputy Maksim Petlin, on slander charges. Petlin, who is currently sitting out a two-month jail sentence, also maintains that the case against him was fabricated.

Despite the absence of both organizers, oppositionists in Yekaterinburg held a Strategy 31 rally Wednesday night.

Per tradition, Strategy 31 rallies are held on the 31st date of the month in dozens of cities throughout Russia in honor of the 31st article of the Russian constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly. They often end with activists being beaten and detained by police.

The vehicle, which is based on the Ural off-road army truck, was designed for use by internal military forces to suppress mass unrest.

According to the journal, the Tornado has the capability to break through barriers, lift and move cargo, remove rubble and carry out other operations to help internal forces suppress riots in a city environment. The specially engineered vehicle consists of an armored body mounted with a water jet capable of striking up to 50 meters.

In addition, the vehicle is equipped with a special grenade launcher, a fire-extinguishing system with fire hose hookup, ladders that can extend up to three floors, a searchlight, a loudspeaker system, and video cameras.

To prevent any possible onslaught from protesters, the Tornado can be sealed to prevent tear gas from leaking inside and is equipped with fire extinguishers.

Authors of the journal say the Tornado is essentially a consolidation of different forms of military technology, allowing troops to rely on one machine instead of four. This will aid engineering units of the internal forces during operations in city conditions “while special operations to suppress mass unrest are being carried out.”

During training exercises in 2009, Russian security forces were spotted using trucks armed with water cannons to break into buildings and knock down barriers. The same exercises also involved groups of pensioners blocking a federal highway in a cry for improved social support. At the time, activists from Eduard Limonov’s banned National Bolshevik Party held protests against the use of water cannons on demonstrators.

On Monday, Police Colonel General Nikolai Golovkin said an investigation of the incident concluded that the conflict arose after journalist Natalya Seybil made a remark about how Major Aleksei Klimov had parked his car, “and we also established his inappropriate behavior in the form of an assault of Natalya Seybil.”

“Following the assertion all circumstances by the administration of the Moscow Regional Main Department of Internal Affairs, a decision was made to fire the officer in question from internal affairs,” Golovkin explained. “The question is being decided on whether to file criminal charges and transfer materials to the Investigative Committee of the Moscow Regional Main Investigative Department of the Russian Federation to make a lawful decision.” He added that the order to fire Klimov was signed on April 4.

As Seybil told Ekho Moskvy radio on April 3, the attack came after a car pulled up to her building while she was outside walking her dog. The driver – Klimov – attempted to flirt with her and asked for her name, but the journalist brushed him off.

“I said: ‘Excuse me,’ – and kept walking. He began asking me again and I said ‘Vasya’ – and kept walking,” said Seybil.

After that, the man jumped out of the car, grabbed her hair and punched her in the face.

“After that, everything was like in a television show – hands on the hood of the car, he bent my arms behind my back, threw my phone to the ground. I called for the police. He threatened me, peppering it all with expletives. My neighbor came out and said: ‘What are you doing, that’s a woman!'”

At that point, Klimov flaunted his identification as a criminal investigative officer.

According to Seybil, the police officers who arrived on the scene released Klimov, saying that there was nothing they could do: “This is our chief,” they told her.

“I’ve been assaulted – my face has been punched, there are bruises all over my body and I had a hypertensive crisis,” Seybil told reporters.

Colonel Yevgeny Gildeyev, a communications officer with the Moscow regional police department, issued an apology to the journalist. “On behalf of the administration of the Main Department of Internal Affairs, I extend sincere apologies to Natalya Seybil. I hope that nothing like this ever happens again; indeed, only true professionals should be police officers,” he said.

Russia’s federal Investigative Committee says it is looking into the case.

Seybil has worked as the editor-in-chief of the talk show Pust Govoryat (“Let Them Talk”) on Russia’s state-controlled Channel One, as well as for the programs Gordon Quixote and Zakryty Pokaz (“Private Screening”).

According to the human rights association Agora, lawyer Dmitri Dinze was prohibited from entering St. Petersburg’s 78th police precinct on the night of March 31, where the activists were placed after being detained at a rally in defense of free assembly.

Having been told that the artists had been beaten, Dinze called Russia’s emergency police number five times during the course of the night. At first, Dinze was promised that officers would be dispatched to resolve the situation, but during the fifth phone call he was told that there was nothing they could do and the lawyer would have to speak with the head of the Central Regional Department of Internal Affairs.

“The St. Petersburg Main Department of Internal Affairs openly admitted that they were incapable of bringing pressure onto officers in the 78th police precinct to not violate the rights of detainees to the defense by and access to a lawyer,” Dinze explained.

He said the doctor who arrived in an ambulance did not actually enter the precinct, which resonated with screams and music associated with the criminal underworld.

Dinze had returned to the 78th precinct after securing the release of Voina activist Oleg Vorotnikov from the 28th precinct. The activist was admitted to the Dzhanelidze Institute of Emergency Medical Care, where wounds all over his body and bruises left from handcuffs were recorded.

Vorotnikov said fellow Voina activists Natalia Sokol and Leonid Nikolaev were also beaten in the police station.

Earlier in the evening, police had taken away Vorotnikov’s young son Kasper and placed him in the surgical unit of the Raukhas Hospital as an “unidentified child,” since Natalia Sokol had his documents with her in police custody.

Vorotnikov was able to bring his son home at 10:35 pm.

Russian Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin has asked Dinze to file an official complaint about the actions of the police. According to Agora, the situation is also being followed by the Federal Chamber of Lawyers.

Between 1000-2000 people took part in a march in St. Petersburg as part of the Strategy 31 campaign in defense of free assembly on March 31, 2011. Approximately 100 of them were arrested.

Update 04/01/11: Information added about protests at Dvortsovaya Square and in Ryazan.

Opposition rallies were held throughout Russia on Thursday as thousands of activists and human rights advocates continued to support the Strategy 31 campaign in defense of free assembly.

In Moscow, two separate rallies were held per recent tradition. Between 300 and 1000 people joined Strategy 31 co-leader Lyudmila Alexeyeva for a government-sanctioned rally at Pushkin Square, where the longtime rights advocate spoke alongside fellow advocate Lev Ponomarev, environmental activist Yevgeniya Chirikova, and others.

Moscow city police estimated the crowd at 150 ralliers and 150 journalists.

Only one person appears to have been arrested at the rally. Someone dressed as a pigeon was taken away after rally organizers told police it could be a possible act of provocation.

Further up the street at Triumfalnaya Square, Strategy 31 founder and Other Russia party leader Eduard Limonov attempted to hold his own, unsanctioned rally. According to Kasparov.ru, government officials turned down Limonov’s application to hold the rally on the basis that a pro-Kremlin youth group had already been given permission to hold a rally in support of blood drives, dubbed “Donor Day,” at the same place and time. However, the publication noted that no such activists were seen on Thursday at the square.

Police blocked off Triumfalnaya early in the day and did not allow ralliers to congregate on the square in general. “They’ve begun to kick everyone out. Standing here is prohibited!” photojournalist Ilya Varlamov wrote on Twitter from Triumfalnaya Square at 5:32 pm, half an hour before the rally was scheduled to begin.

Limonov was arrested immediately upon arrival. “They say I shouted a slogan: ‘respect the constitution of the Russian Federation,'” Limonov told reporters from a police station. “I don’t know since when that became a violation of the law.” Co-organizer Konstantin Kosyakin was also arrested.

Police periodically pushed ralliers out of the square and eventually towards the metro while arresting dozens of others. An estimated 36-50 people were arrested altogether.

Solidarity activist Dmitri Monakhov, who had apparently gone to buy a hotdog, was detained while on line at a Stardogs stand.

During the rally, several unknown young people managed to unfurl banners reading “Hooray! Nutcases, go! Strategy 32” on buildings high above the square but were subsequently arrested.

Around 7:00 pm, about 50 protesters began to march down Tverskaya Ulitsa towards the Kremlin, blocking traffic in the process. Police arrested several of the marchers, five of whom were reportedly beaten severely.

One beaten activist, Dmitri Putenikhin, is currently being held for 48 hours and has been issued a summons from a military enlistment office on the basis of his “prior offenses.” However, human rights advocate Andrei Babushkin told Kasparov.ru that the summons was counterfeit.

According to oppositionist Oleg Kozlovsky, activist Sergei Konstantinov was taken away from a police station in an ambulance due to wounds from police.

An activist detained in the Presnenskoe police station reported by Twitter that police were confiscating the cellphones of detainees.

Presidential human rights advisor Mikhail Fedotov told Interfax that he saw no problems with how police treated Strategy 31 participants. “Everything that I saw on Triumfalnaya Square was organized entirely civilly. They acted very carefully. I saw how several young people who decided to hop around on the scaffolding with a banner were taken down and brought to a bus by the hand. Precisely by the hand,” he said.

Many more people were arrested at two unsanctioned Strategy 31 rallies in St. Petersburg.

By various estimates, between 1000-2000 people began marching from Gostiny Dvor along Nevsky Prospekt at 6:00 pm, shouting “it’s our city, “Russia for the political prisoners,” “freedom,” and “Petersburg without Matviyenko,” referring to Governor Valentina Matviyenko.

The marchers initially walked along the sidewalk, but later spilled into the street. They were blocked by police after about 300-400 meters, at which point officers began arresting marchers. According to local Solidarity leader Olga Kurnosova, about 200 people were detained.

Just before 7:00 pm, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov announced to the crowd that the rally was over and attempted to leave on a trolleybus. However, police blocked the bus and dragged Nemtsov out, arresting both him and fellow oppositionist Ilya Yashin.

Earlier in the day, Nemtsov had presented his newly printed report “Putin. Corruption” at a press conference in St. Petersburg. The 40-page document is drawn from open source material and concludes that “corruption in Russia has ceased to be a problem and has become a system.”

Oleg Vorotnikhov of the art activist group Voina was arrested and severely beaten while in detention. Police have reportedly taken away his young son Kasper and are threatening to take away his parental rights altogether. Fellow Voina activists Leonid Gegen and Ira Putilova were also detained.

Other detainees included two journalists from Moscow, a journalist and cameraperson from Georgia’s Channel One, and a Swedish woman who does not understand Russian.

At least one person was taken away from a police station in an ambulance.

Approximately 200 people took part in a second unsanctioned Strategy 31 rally at Dvortsovaya Square, including members of the liberal Yabloko party and human rights advocates. Organizers say the rally was calm and encountered no police interference.

Other Strategy 31 rallies were held throughout Russia’s regions, including in Vladivostok, Saratov, Kurgan, Ulan-Ude, Penza, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Kirov, Ryazan, and others.

At least 25 people were detained at an unsanctioned rally in Nizhny Novgorod. Activists were arrested immediately upon reaching the meeting place; several were beaten by police.

A rally in Rostov-on-Don was only successful after activists managed to obtain a court order forcing the local government to sanction it. All previous attempts to hold Strategy 31 events in the city had been blocked.

According to Kasparov.ru, authorities in Rostov-on-Don nevertheless attempted to hinder the rally by arresting its various organizers for “hooliganism.” Boris Batiy was sentenced to 3 days in jail and only released on the eve of the rally, Other Russia leader Grigory Elizarov was arrested for 7 days and will not be released until April 2, and local Left Front leader Vladislav Ryazantsev was forcibly placed in a psychiatric ward on March 30, despite having no history of psychological problems.

Approximately 100 people came out to the first-ever Strategy 31 rally in Volgograd. Police observed the event, filming and taking pictures from the sidelines. Participants spoke out against plans by the City Duma to get rid of direct mayoral elections.

Activists from Solidarity and other organizations held solitary pickets in Kirov since their application to hold a Strategy 31 rally was denied by the city government.

About 60 people came to a protest in Ryazan, where organizers spoke about censorship over the local media by Governor Oleg Kovalev that prevents them from informing the public about opposition demonstrations.

The 300-person rally was organized by the Federation of Automobile Owners of Russia (FAR). The police confrontations came only as the rally was already coming to a close.

“The rally had already ended and the police unexpectedly detained Sergei Udaltsov,” said FAR coordinator Sergei Kanaev. “They also beat a woman and a FAR activist. They gave no reason for detaining the rally participants. We had to close the rally.”

Udaltsov explained the situation by phone from a Moscow detention facility. “There was a crackdown. The authorities just needed an excuse for harassment,” he said. “When I left the rally I was detained with no explanation as to why and dragged into a car. And several people fell over. In the station I was told that I was detained for calling people to participate in April’s Day of Wrath rally. Supposedly it isn’t sanctioned and nobody can be invited to it. Yes, I spoke about preparations for the Day of Wrath during my speech at the rally, but that’s just an excuse.” According to Kasparov.ru, Udaltsov was being yelled at to get off the phone during the call, presumably by police.

Despite the detentions, a 50-car auto rally through Moscow organized by FAR proceeded afterwards without incident. Since the auto rally was unsanctioned by Moscow city authorities, FAR had expected people to be detained. Both the rally and auto rally were meant to protest rising gas prices and a government plan to implement “national garages” in Moscow, which FAR claims will do nothing to solve the capital’s intractable parking problems.

No fewer than 100 police officers were present at the rally.