NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia — It was a mistake. But it forced two people into the camp of the opposition, which police roughly prevented from holding an anti-Kremlin march Saturday.
Two old women were standing still on the central square in Nizhny Novgorod, their arms linked. They were not among the activists or journalists who had been detained minutes before.
No more than five meters away stood a cordon of about 100 OMON riot police with batons and metal shields. Without warning, the officers thrust their shields forward and advanced. The women stood fast. One later said she was too scared to move.
With every step forward, the police banged their shields with their batons and shouted, "Back!"
The officers knocked the women to the ground, prompting screams and cries for help.
"This is my town," one woman said afterward. "I am allowed to go wherever I want."
"We weren't even there to protest," said the other. "But now we have something to protest about." Both refused to give their names.
Police beat and detained activists who gathered Saturday near the central Gorky Square to protest the political status quo with the Dissenters' March, as opposition organizers dubbed the rally.
In all, 102 people were detained at the square or on their way to the square, including 11 Moscow residents, six St. Petersburg residents and one Latvian, city police said. Twelve journalists were among the group, four of whom represented foreign media, including The New York Times and The Associated Press.
Of the detainees, 29 who made it onto the square were charged with public disorder, police said. They face a fine.
Authorities refused to authorize the rally on the square, instead allowing a gathering far from the center at a site that protesters ignored.
On Saturday, hundreds of police and OMON officers closed off streets and cordoned off the square ahead of the march. In the center of the square, music blared from speakers as local schoolchildren competed in a sports day organized by the city. A police helicopter periodically drowned out the music as it passed overhead.
Police in riot gear formed a barrier around the square, "to protect the children," one policeman explained.
There were police checkpoints at every access road to the square. Residents were turned away and told that the square was being used for sports.
At about 12:30 p.m., a group of young activists led by Stanislav Dmitryevsky broke into the square to protest, shouting anti-fascist slogans and holding flags aloft. Dmitryevsky, who heads the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, co-organized the march.
Riot police tore into the group and detained them. As they were being carried off, they shouted, "This is fascism!"
The square remained sealed off for the day.
On Friday, Ilya Shamazov and Yury Staroverov, two other organizers, were "invited for a chat with police" and subsequently detained on suspicion of terrorist activity, said Oksana Chelysheva, deputy head of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.
Prosecutors accuse them of distributing pamphlets with instructions on how to become a terrorist, Chelysheva said.
Marina Litvinovich, an assistant to former chess champion Garry Kasparov, who heads the United Civil Front, was detained in her car Friday, Chelysheva said.
Litvinovich was told that her car's license plate matched that of a stolen vehicle, she said. She was released several hours later only to be detained again for the same reason.
Kasparov was on a business trip in Germany on Saturday that he had been unable to reschedule, a United Civil Front spokeswoman said.
Other prominent figures who attended a protest of several thousand in St. Petersburg earlier this month did not make it to Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday.
Eduard Limonov, head of the unregistered National Bolshevik Party, said by telephone Friday, "I have other plans," before adding that he was in a Moscow police station. Prosecutors on Thursday moved to shut down his group.
Spokespeople for liberal politician Irina Khakamada and former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said the two were also otherwise engaged.
Nizhny Novgorod residents were not impressed with what they saw as heavy-handed policing.
"It is simply illegal," said Vladislav Falik, 46, an employee of the city's giant automobile plant, GAZ. Falik shouted his comments from behind a police cordon on one of the square's access roads.
"It is shameful to act in such a way in front of the children," he said. "But the political system is such that the only way to get an opinion across is to take to the streets. And we will continue to do that."
The children in the center of the square could not be approached; their supervisors warned journalists away.
A local Yabloko representative said Russia's international reputation would suffer. "The world will see how Russia behaves," he said.
The opposition is planning more marches this year, including one in Moscow in mid-April.
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