RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Jan 17, 2011
TODAY: Peaceful rally held to mark football fan’s death; Nemtsov released from jail, attacked with butterfly net, fails to attend small support rally; swine flu, HIV and crime on the rise; EU unlikely to lift visa restrictions; Melnikov house under threat.
A Yabloko-organized rally, held in Moscow on Saturday to commemorate a football fan killed last month, ‘ended peacefully‘ (despite 19 brief detentions) despite police fears over its reported 1,000 attendees (outnumbered 1 to 4 by police). Boris Nemtsov has been released from a 15-day stint in ‘medieval conditions‘ in prison following his attendance at an anti-government rally, and was promptly attacked with a butterfly net, a repeat of a similar attack in 2007 in which the net was labelled ‘political insect‘. Nemtsov failed to attend a 20-strong rally held on Saturday in his defense, says RIA Novosti, apparently due to ill health. The Kremlin is reportedly ‘already making preparations‘ in case the rumors are true and Mikhail Khodorkovsky is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year.