Anti-Putin protesters face what critics call a show trial

         
Twelve Russians who could face long prison terms over clashes with police at a protest against President Vladimir Putin go before a judge on Thursday, in a case Kremlin critics liken to Soviet-era show trials of dissidents.           

The pre-trial hearing in the "Bolotnaya" case, named for the Moscow square where violence broke out at a rally the day before Putin was sworn in for his third term in May 2012, opens a new page in what his foes say is a determined clampdown on dissent.  

Putin has signed laws activists say restrict freedoms, civic groups are under pressure from prosecutors and prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny could be sentenced to 10 years in prison in a trial he says is politically motivated.          

Now the "Bolotnaya" defendants could face similar fates. Charged with "mass disorder", violence against police, or both, some could be imprisoned for eight years if convicted.            

"This is a Stalin-style trial," said Georgy Satarov, a former aide to the late President Boris Yeltsin and now head of INDEM, a think tank. "This is revenge ... It's an attempt to use fear to stop the growth of the protest movement."           

The rally followed a wave of peaceful protests that erupted in December 2011, fueled by claims of electoral fraud and dismay over Putin's decision to return to the presidency until at least 2018 after a stint as prime minister.           

The protests were the biggest of Putin's 13-year rule, but they have dwindled. The pre-trial hearing comes before a planned protest march on June 12 on a route ending at Bolotnaya Square.           

Defendant Andrei Barabanov, one of a total of nearly 30 people facing trial or prosecution over the May 6, 2012 protest, was dragged away so roughly by police that an ambulance had to be called for him.           
"I am a normal guy - until May 6, I'd never been arrested," he said at a recent hearing over his pre-trial jailing.      


REUTERS