[ad_1]
By Andrey Kuzmin and Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A human rights group on Sunday arrested more than 800 protesters against the expected increase in the retirement age, disrupting the protests against an unpopular change that undermined the security rating. President Vladimir Putin's popularity.
The demonstrations, organized by imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his supporters, were a challenge for the authorities, who hoped for a strong turnout in the regional elections that were also held on Sunday, despite the anger provoked by the retreat.
Images of the demonstrations, which took place in over 80 cities, showed that the police sometimes used force to disperse the rallies, beating the participants with batons and training them. The authorities refused to allow most meetings, declaring them illegal.
OVD-Info, a human rights organization that monitors detentions, said 839 people were arrested Sunday by police in 33 cities, including some of Navalny's closest aides.
He said most of the detentions – 354 – were carried out in St. Petersburg, where the authorities had initially authorized a rally before the decision was overturned. The Interior Ministry was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that the police had carried out a hundred detentions in St. Petersburg and "several" in Moscow.
The proposed pension changes, which are currently before parliament, have reduced Putin's popularity rating by 15 percentage points and are the most unpopular measure taken by the government since 2005.
Navalny, barred from state television and prevented from running against President Putin earlier this year, hopes to take advantage of public anger over the reform.
He planned to run the Sunday demonstration in Moscow, but a court sentenced him last month for violating the protest laws and jailed him for 30 days. Navalny said the move was aimed at derailing the protests.
In Moscow, where authorities have rejected a demand for protest from supporters of Navalny, about 2,000 people gathered in Pushkin's central square, authorities and Reuters journalists said.
Some have chanted "Russia will be free" and "Putin is a thief". The riot police ordered them to disperse or face prosecution. Some demonstrators then marched through the center of Moscow before the riot police arrested them with metal barriers and sometimes brutal detentions.
A Reuters reporter saw at least three people detained.
Despite the nature of the event, many of the participants were young.
"I came here to protest the pension reform, I have to live in this country and I want to have hope for the future and good old age," said Nikolai Borodin, 22.
Another protester, 23-year-old Katya Shomnikova, said, "They (the authorities) have stolen my future life, we will have to correct what has been done. I want a better life for myself and my children.
After being amended by Putin, the reforms envisage raising the retirement age for men from 65 to 60 and from 60 to 60 for women. The average life expectancy of men is 66 years and that of women 77 years.
Opinion polls place Navalny's support at one figure, but supporters say he won nearly a third of the vote in a 2013 Moscow mayoral race and could give Putin a chance if he was allowed to run against him. field.
Putin is keen to never mention Navalny by name, but suggested he was Washington's choice for the Russian presidency.
Navalny compared Putin to an autocratic tsar who hung on power too long. Authorities have not registered his party Russia of the future.
Elections to select leaders from 26 of Russia's 85 regions were also held on Sunday, including in Moscow.
Written by Andrew Osborn and Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Louise Heavens
