Former world chess champion Gary Kasparov has accused Russian authorities of illegally crushing an anti-Kremlin march on Saturday and called the protest a victory for opponents of President Vladimir Putin.
Kasparov, who was among at least 170 people detained during a march organized by opposition coalition Other Russia, appeared briefly outside a central Moscow court after being charged with public order offences during the banned protest.
"Russia is no longer a country ... where the government tries to pretend it is playing by the letter and spirit of the law. This court rejected the very presumption of my innocence. I was the one who had to prove that I was innocent, although there were no concrete allegations against me. Nevertheless, we consider today a victory. Today is an important demonstration of the degeneration of Putin's regime. The outrageous behaviour of the authorities only demonstrates that we live in a police state. But we are not going to stop here. We will continue to struggle. Although the Russian constitution clearly stipulates that every citizen has the right to speak freely, the current regime doesn't respect that right. The opinion of the average man simply doesn't count. This regime has shown its true colours and its true face. We now stand somewhere between Belarus and Zimbabwe.
"We were arrested when we were doing nothing. There was no action. We were just walking along. There was simply a criminal attack by people in riot-police uniforms on Russian citizens who were just walking along. Every possible (procedural) violation has been committed, from the moment we were grabbed up to this court .... I have to go back (into the court) now, because if I'm late they'll charge me with another violation."
Want to see pictures of the march? Then visit Kasparov's own website at kasparov.ru
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