Kasparov, chess champion, shows up again

Kasparov freed after anti-Putin rally

Wow, after all these years, the former world chess champion has emerged as the most prominent leader of the Russian opposition alliance. He was the arch-rival of Bobbie Fischer, strange American chessplayer of ancient times (1970's). oOo

MOSCOW - Hundreds of demonstrators defied authorities Saturday by trying to stage an anti-government rally banned from a landmark downtown square, setting off sporadic clashes with police across Moscow and bringing a wave of arrests.

A coalition of opposition groups organized the "Dissenters March" to protest the economic and social policies of President Vladimir Putin as well as a series of Kremlin actions that critics say has stripped Russians of many political rights. oOo

"It is no longer a country [Russia]... where the government tries to pretend it is playing by the letter and spirit of the law," Kasparov said outside the court building, appearing unfazed by his detention.

"We now stand somewhere between Belarus and Zimbabwe," two dictatorships that have cracked down on opposition, he said. oOo oOo

But some protesters said they were not discouraged by the small turnout or intimidated by the overwhelming force marshaled to block the rally. oOo

Andrei Illarionov, a former Putin economics adviser who has become a Kremlin critic, pointed out that in 1968 only six people appeared in Red Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Ouch!! Progress! oOo oOo

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