By Citizen M | Published: August 26, 2010

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.
News that Mayor Yury Luzhkov has allocated
more funds to a honey producer who cares for his ‘
personal bee farm‘ than to elderly and disabled residents recovering from the effects of smog is not likely to go down well. The leader of United Russia’s youth group, the Young Guard, is stepping down, ostensibly due to a policy change, but the
Moscow Times says the real reason is ‘
the scandal caused by a photo and video shoot that showed Young Guard members pretending to fight a fire in the Ryazan region earlier this month‘. Authorities, meanwhile, are trying to estimate the extent of
fire damage.
Russia has
dismissed Georgia’s accusation that it deployed S-300 air defense missiles in South Ossetia. Canada managed to intercept
two Russian bombers that came within 50 kilometers of its airspace. Turkey says it will
no longer list Russia as one of its national security threats. President Dmitry Medvedev’s police overhaul plan
needs overhauling, suggests early public responses. A new ‘
Global Threat Index‘ estimates that Russia is one of the most dangerous countries – in terms of
malware and viruses – in which to surf the web.
PHOTO: A Russian man shovels grain at a farm in Vasyurinskoe. (AFP)