August 26, 2010 By Citizen M

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Aug 26, 2010

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TODAY: Amnesty members detained at U2 concert; Strategy 31 cop under investigation; Triumfalnaya closure won’t deter protesters; anti-Putin report confiscated; Luzkhov prefers bees; Young Guard leader stepping down; bombers near Canadian airspace; Russia denies Georgia’s missile claim; Russia’s internet is ‘dangerous’; Viktor Bout; accusations of racism threaten World Cup bid.
Five Amnesty activists were detained for distributing flyers at Moscow’s U2 concert yesterday, the agency says.  The pearl-braceleted policeman caught on video beating a ‘peaceful protester‘ at the most recent Stragety 31 rally is apparently under investigation and could face jail.  The closing of Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square, the ongoing site of activist’s wrangles with the authorities over permission for rallies, is unlikely, they say, to deter them from gathering around its perimeters.  Yevgeny Chichvarkin says he will join a protest in favor of the right for peaceful assembly at London’s Moscow embassy later this month.  Police in Murmansk have confiscated copies of an anti-Putin report for suspected extremist content; apparently the same report was confiscated (and subsequently released) for the same reason in St Petersburg earlier this year.