Thousands demand Putin quit:

Russian police violently broke up a rally in Saint Petersburg as thousands took to the streets across Russia Saturday on President Vladimir Putin’s 65th birthday, urging him to quit power.

Heeding the call of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny to demand competitive elections, around 3,000 people rallied in Russia’s second city and Putin’s hometown while more than a thousand demonstrated in the centre of Moscow, AFP reporters said. Protests were held in around 80 cities throughout the country.

More than 270 people were detained nationwide, more than 60 of them in Saint Petersburg, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors politically motivated arrests.

But while police in rainy Moscow showed restraint, allowing the crowd of mostly young protesters to march in the city centre in an apparent effort to avoid clashes on Putin’s birthday, the rally in Saint Petersburg ended in violence.

Activists chanted “Shame” as helmeted police threw some protesters into police vans, injuring several demonstrators and forcing some to run for cover, an AFP reporter and witnesses said.

Igor Klimov, a 20-year-old protester, said he was not happy with Putin.

“He has been in power for as long as I can remember and there’s corruption everywhere,” he told AFP.

Photographs from the scene showed a woman clutching her bleeding head after being detained by officers at the unauthorised protest.

Amnesty International called on Russian authorities to immediately release the protesters and investigate instances of violence. (AFP)

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