Hundreds of people arrested in russia and the leading opposition politician jailed protestors say president putins opponents are being excluded from taking part in moscow city elections why is the government taking such a hard stance and could violence against the demonstrators backfire this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program. Its one of the biggest security crackdown seen in russia for many years i guess what the Authorities Say are illegal demonstrations an independent Monitoring Group says more than 800 protesters were detained on saturday the week before the figure was almost 1400 and the leading opponent of president Vladimir Putin unexplained avani was jailed russians are angry at the ban on some opposition minded candidates for the next months city elections in moscow the council controlled by the pro kremlin uniteds russia party is responsible for a last minute simple budget the vote comes at a time when putins Approval Rating although still high at more than 60