Moscow Police Break Up Anti-Putin Sit-in

Moscow authorities broke up a week-long Occupy protest on Wednesday that sprung up in response to President Vladimir Putin's inauguration, warning they would prevent similar actions during his third term.

The dawn-hours raid on dozens of sleeping protesters brought an abrupt end to younger Russians' first attempt to emulate the tent city tactic that is increasing popular in the West.

Sweepers had already cleared the scenic square by the time commuters were rushing to the nearby metro station while activists were debating where next to stage the first sit-in since former spy Putin's domination began in 1999.

"They put up no resistance. Everything passed off fairly peacefully," deputy district police chief Yury Zdorenko said in televised comments. "Everything happened in accordance with the spirit of the law."

The small but daring protest became the talking point of Russian politics while testing the ruling elite's desire to put up with a form of dissent that still falls narrowly within the confines of increasingly strict legislation.

The rallies swelled to a few thousand as people finished work but shrank to just a few dozen activists overnight.

The sit-in referred to itself as "Occupy Abay" -- a reference to the looming bronze statue of 19th century Kazakh poet Abay Kunanbayuli around which the protesters gathered in a leafy boulevard in the upscale Chistye Prudy district.

And they got around rules requiring the city to mandate any form of protest by calling their action a mass public "stroll".

A local Moscow court on Tuesday ordered the authorities to break up the rally because of noise and other complaints from three local residents.

The police had a noon Wednesday deadline but moved in at 5:30 am (0130 GMT) despite at least one appeal having been filed against the judge's orders.

"The morning dispersal was illegal and here is the proof," liberal Yabloko party leader Sergei Mitrokhin wrote in a blog on the Moscow Echo radio station website next to a copy of his own letter to the court.

Prominent activist Ilya Yashin said some of the activists had moved to a square that sits under a famous Stalin-era skyscraper near the Moscow zoo.

"Come and join us. Things are fun here," Yashin tweeted to his supporters.

Activists unhappy with Putin's presidential return after a four-year stint as prime minister have been increasingly resorting to creative forms of protest that slip through legal loopholes and do not require formal city sanction.

More than 10,000 Russians of all ages joined a peaceful stroll through a neighborhood near Chistye Prudy on Saturday in a clear bid to test the limits of the law.

Moscow painters have voiced plans to conduct a similar stroll over the weekend.

"If they push us out again, then we will simply walk around the city from square to square," said opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov. "Nobody can stop citizens from sitting on park benches."

But members of the ruling party have vowed in recent days to tighten both restrictions and toughen penalties for those who camp out and promenade through the city en masse.

"These things can happen completely spontaneously and then no one's security is assured. No government in the world would allow that," Moscow city council chairman Vladimir Platonov told Moscow Echo.