Anti-government rally in Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad draws hundreds

KALININGRAD, Russia – KALININGRAD, Russia (AP) — Hundreds of residents of Kaliningrad, Russia's Baltic exclave, have gathered on a central square to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.

Several political parties including the Communists, the liberal Yabloko Party and the Solidarity movement took part in Saturday's rally, the latest of several anti-Kremlin gatherings in Kaliningrad. Unusually, the protest was not heavily policed.

Opponents of the Kremlin treat Kaliningrad as the forefront of the protest movement, sensing more tolerance by authorities there than in Moscow or St. Petersburg, where rallies are brutally dispersed.

Solidarity leader Boris Nemtsov called the authorities "thieves," to chants from the crowd of "Fire Putin! Fire Putin!"