Russia braces for new rallies in wake of arrests

Riot police in helmets roughly dragged over 550 protestors into detention vans Tuesday evening in central Moscow, in the second protest in as many days organised via the Internet to protest Sunday\'s parliamentary polls.

"Police detained 569 people for an attempt to hold the unsanctioned rally," a law enforcement source told the ITAR-TASS news agency.

Putin\'s United Russia party won the polls with a sharply reduced majority, amid signs his once-invincible popularity might be waning. The opposition says that the ruling party\'s performance would have been even worse in free polls.

The conduct of the polls, which OSCE-led observers said were slanted in favour of United Russia, raised international concern. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the elections were neither free nor fair.

The Russian foreign ministry protested that Clinton\'s comments were "unacceptable" while top lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev said they were drawn from "one of the darkest pages in the recent history of Russia-US relations."

Internet-based protesters vowed further demonstrations in the days to come, despite a warning by police that participants in unsanctioned protests would be arrested.

A group "for honest elections" said on its Facebook page that a new demonstration would take place in central Moscow on Saturday afternoon. More than 5,000 members of the Facebook group have already promised to attend.

Another social networking group, calling itself "against the party of swindlers and thieves" -- the opposition\'s slogan for United Russia -- said protests would now take place every day at 7:00 pm local time.

"When the authorities have stolen honest elections from the people, we can only defend our rights on the street," it said.

Russia\'s liberal newspapers hailed the protests, saying the opposition had finally found a voice against the domination of Putin.

"We prevented the real political process and built cardboard scenery instead. But it\'s dangerous to hold back a natural process: now it\'s payback time," wrote liberal daily Vedomosti in an editorial.

The Nezavisimaya Gazeta added: "The middle class has started to express its discontent, which is an extremely alarming signal for the authorities," said

Moscow Echo radio said six of those detained Tuesday had already been given jail terms of up to 15 days but it was not clear how many of those arrested were still being held.

The authorities sent in hundreds of pro-Kremlin youth activists to fill the Triumfalnaya Ploshad square ahead of the protest. They banged drums and waved flags protected by a police line holding back opposition supporters to the edges of the square.

Police in Putin\'s native city of Saint Petersburg made around 200 arrests at the protests there although most were released by Wednesday morning, the Interfax news agency said.

The authorities were caught by surprise when the first opposition rally on Monday evening attracted thousands. Influential opposition blogger Alexei Navalny, who coined the slogan "swindlers and thieves", was among those arrested and was sentenced Tuesday to 15 days in jail.

State television news has virtually ignored the demonstrations, and the morning bulletin on Channel One did not contain a single mention of the protests.

But with the authorities clearly nervous, police said that more than 51,000 police were guarding the city streets, among them 2,000 army conscripts, in a heightened security regime.

United Russia polled just under 50 percent of the vote after winning more than 64 percent in 2007 but still held on to an absolute majority of seats in parliament. Its biggest opposition in the State Duma will be the Communists.

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