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Russian Police Arrest 82-Year-Old Activist

   VOA News 31 December 2009
   Police  detain  82-year-old  rights  activist  Lyudmila  Alexeyeva (C)
   during  New Year's Eve anti-Kremlin protest in downtown Moscow, 31 Dec
   2009

Photo: AP

   Lyudmila  Alexeyeva  (C) during New Year's Eve anti-Kremlin protest in
   downtown Moscow, 31 Dec 2009

   Russian police have detained at least 30 anti-government protesters in
   Moscow, including a prize-winning 82-year-old human rights activist.
   Opposition  demonstrators  gathered  in  central Moscow's Triumfalnaya
   square Thursday in support of their constitutional right to freedom of
   assembly.
   They  shouted  slogans  against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin,
   saying he has reversed democratic reform.
   News  reports  from  Moscow say 82-year-old Russian dissident Lyudmila
   Alexeyeva  was  among  those  arrested.   She  is  one  of this year's
   recipients  of the European Parliament's Sakharov prize for freedom of
   thought.   She  is a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki group, one
   of Russia's oldest human rights organizations.
   A  White House statement issued Thursday says the Obama administration
   is   dismayed   that   Russian  authorities  prevented  citizens  from
   exercising their right to assemble peacefully.
   The statement says freedom of speech and assembly are universal rights
   that all governments should recognize and defend.

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