(5 Mar 2012)
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Protesters shouting (Russian) "We won't go", pan to riot police
2. Protesters helping another protester
3. Protester being arrested
4. Police trying to grab camera
5. Wide of statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin
6. Mid of police underneath statue
7. Close of riot police
8. Wide of square, zoom in to scuffles
9. Wide of square
10. Photographers taking flash pictures of female protester struggling to get through police line
11. Various of police and protesters scuffling
12. Wide of square
13. Reverse of group of police on the move
14. Various of arrests
15. Various of police holding line against pushing crowd
16. Mid and pan of arrested protester
17. Mid of opposition activists and popular blogger Alexei Navalny on stage earlier in the evening
18. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Alexei Navalny, opposition activist:
"Who is going to stop these people?"
Crowd answers: (Russian) "We are"
"We feel sorry for them and will save them. Those people who cannot change, we will teach them and those who do not want to, we will force to live by the law because we hold the power here."
Crowd answers: (Russian) "We hold the power here."
19. Pan from crowd to stage
STORYLINE
Riot police on Monday quickly and forcefully broke up an opposition attempt to occupy a square in downtown Moscow in a bid to dispute Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's election victory.
Police arrested dozens of participants, including some prominent opposition leaders.
The harsh police action could fuel the opposition anger and trigger bigger protests against Putin's rule, but it also underlined the massive challenges faced by the opposition.
Putin seems to command the unswerving loyalty of police and the military, whose wages were recently doubled.
The police action followed a rally in downtown Moscow that drew about 20,000 protesters angry over a campaign slanted in Putin's favour and reports of widespread violations in Sunday's ballot.
The big rally went on peacefully, but hundreds of police in full riot gear forcefully dispersed several hundred protesters who had vowed to stay on the iconic Pushkin Square until Putin steps down.
Charismatic protest leader Alexei Navalny, who sought to stir the crowd with a passionate call of "We are the power!" was among those arrested along with leader of opposition party Left Front Sergei Udaltsov.
Scores were put in police vans parked around the square.
Monday's attempt to occupy the square marked a change of tactics for the opposition that is looking for ways to maintain the momentum of the protests.
During the first massive protests in December, Navalny was the first to propose occupying streets to raise the heat on Putin.
Putin won more than 63 percent of the vote, according to the nearly complete official returns, but the opposition says the election was marred by massive fraud.
International election monitors pointed at the lack of real competition and said the vote count was assessed negatively in almost a third of polling stations observers visited.
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