Riot police broke up a demonstration in Russia's Far East region on Saturday against higher import duties on used foreign cars, highlighting official sensitivity to any protests linked to growing economic hardship.
Hundreds chanted in unison in the centre of the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, 6,000 Km (3,750 miles) east of Moscow, and held up posters, some saying "Bloodsuckers!" and "No to duty increases". The protest is the second this week in Vladivostok, an important gateway to the Pacific rim economies and major importer of used Japanese cars.
The global economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on Russia, with financial markets slumping and oil prices, a chief source of foreign revenues, falling from $147 to under $40 per barrel in six months. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned on Friday against what he called attempts to destabilise the country.
In Vladivostok, OMON special police units dressed in riot gear moved in and pushed the crowds back. At least 15 people were detained and loaded into Interior Ministry minivans, said an eyewitness at the scene. "We planned all this not for the sake of chaos, but to combat chaos," one of the protest organisers told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The car import duty is being raised to discourage Russian consumers from buying second-hand car imports and to prop up the struggling domestic motor industry, largely based around Volga region cities like Togliatti, home of the Soviet-era Lada.
INTERNET: The protests - around 30 cities across Russia, including Moscow and St Petersburg, are planning more for December 21 - are organised via mobile phone text messaging and internet forums in order to slip under the radar of authorities and government.
News coverage of the protests was limited mainly to the internet and some radio channels. The main state-controlled television channels did not report them. Russia's government has been keen to prevent signs of unrest over the financial turmoil. Painful memories of the 1998 rouble collapse are still vivid to many Russians, and a queue near even a small bank's door could trigger a bank run. Earlier this week depositors with a small Russian bank took to the streets in central Moscow to demand the return of their funds, the first publicised bank protest the Russian capital has seen during the credit crisis.
Moscow police has said it is preparing to help contain social unrest when the financial crisis spreads through all strata of society. On December 16 thousands gathered in Vladivostok to first protest against the higher car import duty, and some brandished posters critical of Prime Minister Putin.