THE WHITE KING:

Kasparov arrested in Moscow: The former chess champion is among dozens of dissidents detained at a preelection demonstration (Megan K. Stack, November 25, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

Former chess champion and opposition figurehead Gary Kasparov and dozens of other anti-Kremlin demonstrators were arrested Saturday as they marched along a slushy downtown street hollering, "Russia without Putin!"

Riot police pounced on the activists and stuffed them into police vans after they pushed ahead with a banned preelection march through the bustling streets of the capital.

Also detained was Eduard Limonov, another prominent dissident and head of the group formerly known as the National Bolshevik Party, which itself is banned by the Kremlin.

"If the regime is preserved, the country will die," Kasparov told at least 1,000 cheering protesters shortly before his arrest. "That's why we're here. We'll protect the country."

It's not the first time a regime has had to intervene to save itself from him. He won last time.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 25, 2007 4:15 PM