Police Oust Communists From TV Studio to End 11-Day Rally

Police in riot gear forced a group of hard-line Communists off the grounds of the central television studio Monday, ending an 11-day anti-government and anti-Semitic rally.

Protesters’ reports that five people were killed in pre-dawn clashes with police were dismissed by authorities, and journalists saw no evidence of casualties.

Several thousand police, many wearing helmets and carrying clubs and Plexiglas shields, lined the streets around the Ostankino Television Co. hours after the protest was broken up.

About 3,000 protesters later attempted to break through a police barricade. Witnesses reported injuries on both sides.

The protests were the latest in the capital by Russians unhappy with the Soviet Union’s collapse and President Boris N. Yeltsin’s free-market reforms.

“It’s obvious the Russian people are still asleep. Why don’t they wake up and tell it like it is?” said protester Mariya Bitarova, a pensioner carrying a red flag.

“I used to live wonderfully, I got a 120-ruble monthly pension and it was enough for me in my old age and for my children. Now I get 1,000 rubles and I’m considered unfortunate!” she said.

The protest started June 11. The crowd, which varied from a few dozen to several hundred people, carried signs saying “world Zionism” controlled Russia’s television airwaves. “Russia will not be a colony of Israel and the United States,” one banner said.

The protesters also complained that the central TV station broadcasts only programs reflecting the views of Yeltsin’s government and that Communists don’t get air time. The station, also known as Commonwealth TV, broadcasts throughout the ex-Soviet Union.

“Our future is socialism and communism. It’s obvious. There can be no alternative,” said Gennady Vochenkov, 56. “Why don’t they give other economists--economists who can tell people the truth--the right to broadcast their views on the air?”

Interfax said the police raid began before dawn Monday as the protesters were about to light candles in memory of Soviet soldiers who died in World War II.