6 June 2013 Last updated at 04:20
Anti-Putin protesters face trial over Bolotnaya clashes
Activists protest in Moscow ahead of the trial
Twelve Russians are set to appear in court in Moscow over clashes at an anti-Vladimir Putin rally in 2012.
Critics of the president say the Bolotnaya case - named after the Moscow square where the clashes occurred - is a throw-back to Soviet-era show trials.
The clashes erupted the day before President Putin's swearing-in.
Activists say the trial is another example of a crackdown on dissent. The police say protesters turned on them with metal bars and flagstones.
'Shed blood'
The charges include mass disorder and violence against the police. Some of the defendants could face eight-year jail terms.
Georgy Satarov, a former aide to ex-President Boris Yeltsin, told Reuters: "This is a Stalin-style trial. This is revenge. It's an attempt to use fear to stop the growth of the protest movement."
Mr Putin has said people can protest peacefully but that it is unacceptable to commit violence against the police.
Ahead of the trial, state television broadcast footage that it said showed the protests were organised by opposition leaders and a Georgian lawmaker, with US money.
The deputy chairman of the lower house, Sergei Zheleznyak, said: "The goal was to shed blood, to provoke mass unrest and lots of deaths."
But rights campaigner Lev Ponomaryov told the Associated Press: "This is the first big political trial of Putin's Russia. It has to set a precedent to wipe out political opposition."
The Bolotnaya rally on 6 May 2012 was the culmination of a wave of protests, begun in December 2011, that followed Mr Putin's party's victory in parliamentary elections.
Tens of thousands of people had marched to the square.
Mr Satarov said police pushed protesters into a confined area, causing panic.
Police say dozens of officers were hurt by rioting protesters.
Hundreds of people were arrested.
Two activists have so far been jailed for plotting to foment unrest.
Since returning to the Kremlin, President Putin has signed a string of laws apparently designed to stamp out dissent and weaken civil society, including tougher punishments for unsanctioned protests and legislation that broadens the definition of state treason.
