Former Chess Champion Is Detained At March In Moscow

MOSCOW, April 14 — Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion turned opposition politician in Russia, was arrested with nearly 200 other protesters during a rally in Moscow on Saturday that ended in clashes with riot troops.

The rally, the third so-called Dissenters March held by a loose antigovernment coalition known as Other Russia, was noteworthy because authorities aggressively pursued the organizers, including President Vladimir V. Putins former prime minister, Mikhail M. Kasyanov, whom the police jostled but did not arrest. Mr. Kasparov was later fined and released.

The rally was principally supported by Mr. Kasyanov and Mr. Kasparov, who leads a group here called the United Civil Front.

Essentially barred from access to television, members of Other Russia have embraced street protests as the only platform to voice their opposition ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections next March. Early this month, Mr. Kasyanovs and Mr. Kasparovs Web sites were blocked, though it was unclear by whom.

The marches have become a test both of the determination of the opposition and the willingness of the government to use force to prevent it from gaining traction in street politics in the big cities.

Other Russia was refused a permit to march in Moscow, but defied the ban, as it has in two previous marches in St. Petersburg and the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod. Authorities said roughly 9,000 police officers and Interior Ministry troops, known as OMON, were deployed in Moscow on Saturday.

A Moscow police spokesman said 170 people were arrested; organizers said the number was much higher.

In addition to Mr. Kasparov, who was arrested while walking on Moscows Tverskaya Street before arriving at the event, the police detained Maria Gaidar, a daughter of a former prime minister, and Ilya Yashin, the head of the youth wing of the Yabloko opposition party.

Im arrested, Mr. Kasparov, who resigned from professional chess but is still the worlds highest-ranked player in the World Chess Federation, said in a telephone interview from inside a detention van. It was an act of banditry.

During a break in a hearing at a central Moscow court on charges of shouting antigovernment slogans, according to Reuters, Mr. Kasparov said: Today the regime showed its true colors, its true face. I believe this was a great victory for the opposition because people got through and the march happened.

Eventually Mr. Kasparov was fined $38 and released. He said he would appeal the charges.

Mr. Kasyanov, the former prime minister, was surrounded by riot police officers as he approached the rally on foot. Everybody should ask themselves what is happening in our government, Mr. Kasyanov said, as the police closed in. We respect the Constitution and demand the authorities do the same.

The police grabbed Mr. Kasyanovs bodyguards, arresting them, and Mr. Kasyanov tumbled backward but was caught by the crowd. Officers, dont fulfill illegal orders, Mr. Kasyanov shouted. Officers, stop!

In defiance of city authorities, demonstrators attempted to march from Pushkin Square, a prominent public space, to Turgenev Square, about a mile away. Most of the several hundred who set off were arrested or dispersed before arriving at their destination. Interior Ministry troops tried to block the way by setting up cordons ahead of the marchers, in a cat and mouse chase through central Moscow.

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