U.N. decries Russian use of force against protesters

Russian police appear to have used excessive force against protesters at the weekend, allegedly injuring more than 70, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday. A U.N. human rights spokesman urged Russian authorities to allow people to organize and take part in peaceful assemblies without restrictions.

"When managing crowds in Russia as anywhere else, use of force by the police should always be proportionate to the threat if there is one and should only be employed as a measure of last resort," he told a briefing. Russian police rounded up more than 1,000 people in Moscow on Saturday in one of the biggest crackdowns of recent years against an increasingly defiant opposition decrying President Vladimir Putin's tight grip on power.

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