Russian TV presenter arrested

A Russian TV presenter and political activist has been arrested at an anti-Vladimir Putin rally in central Moscow on Saturday. Ksenia Sobchak, 32 years old, was arrested with a leading figure in the Solidarity Movement, Ilya Yashin. Yashin tweeted: “Came with Ksenia Sobchak for a stroll on the Lubyanka Square. The police decided we were too cold and put us into a detention van.” Sobchak, sometime described as a “Russia’s Paris Hilton”, has often claimed that Putin’s election was rigged. Hundreds of people have gathered Russia’s capital to protest against against the government. The authorities banned the rally. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was also arrested during the protest. He wrote on Twitter: “This is the traditional and not very original tweet from the police detention van. It's raving mad. They snatched me out from the crowd.” Despite freezing temperatures – minus 14 degrees Celsius – Russians gathered to lay flowers at the Solovetsky Stone, one of the few memorials in the Russian capital to the victims of brutal political repression and purges of Soviet times. Source: AFP