Demonstrators protesting against a perceived crackdown on the opposition convinced the capital's traffic police to fine a government official for violating traffic rules over the weekend.
Protesters had gathered Saturday to walk between the headquarters of the Federal Security Service on Lyubyanskaya Ploshchad and the Investigative Committee building on Tekhnichesky Pereulok. Activists held a series of one-man pickets along the route.
But when a government official's Mercedes crossed into a lane of oncoming traffic in an effort to bypass a crowd of demonstrators, protesters started shouting "police report" and "one law for everyone," according to a video of the incident posted on YouTube.
After a few minutes, traffic police duly approached the official's car and filled out a police report, Vedomosti reported.
Driving on the wrong side of the road carries a maximum penalty of a six-month license suspension, although it was unclear Sunday how traffic police chose to punish the official.
Saturday's march, which was attended opposition leaders including anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov and Solidarity co-leader Ilya Yashin, comes after investigators opened a criminal case against opposition activists on charges of plotting mass riots across the country. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Leonid Razvozzhayev, one of those charged, says he was abducted in Kiev and tortured into giving incriminating evidence.
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