Irish band's first Russian concert marked by human rights arrests

Activist arrests blots U2 Russian gig

Irish band's first Russian concert marked by human rights arrests

Irish super group U2's first Russia concert was marred yesterday after police detained rights campaigners at the jam-packed venue and tore down tents to prevent them gathering signatures for petitions.

Some 75,000 fans flocked to Wednesday evening's showpiece in a Moscow stadium, which came the day after U2 front man Bono held talks with rock-loving President Dmitry Medvedev on issues including preventing the spread of polio and HIV.

Bono praised Medvedev as "gracious" in front of the crowd but also as a finale invited Russian rock star Yury Shevchuk -- famous for his outbursts against the Kremlinu00a0 -- to the stage for a duet.

Police not only forced out activists handing out leaflets and gathering signatures but also U2's own charity fund, the ONE Campaign against AIDS, activists said.

"The tents of Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the ONE foundation were removed by police and we were not allowed to collect signatures and to talk to people," Greenpeace Russian director Ivan Blokov said.

"Our activities were agreed with U2's management, so we are very surprised," he said.

Moscow police however said the concert was not the moment to mix music and politics. "All of that held the unquestionable trappings of an unsanctioned picket," said a policespokesman.

Amnesty International's Russia head said that five of the rights watchdog's activists were detained ahead of Wednesday's concert.

"It is sad that in Russia, which is considered a civilised country the collection of petition signatures worries the authorities," Sergei Nikitin said.

"You get the impression that the authorities are afraid of their own citizens."

He protested that Amnesty had carried out similar awareness work with U2's encouragement throughout the band's European tour and that two of its activists had in fact travelled with U2 from the United States.

"I don't know if Bono knows about what happened to us," he said.

For the finale, Bono invited Soviet rock star turned anti-Kremlin activist Shevchuk onstage for a rendition of the Bob Dylan classic Knocking on Heaven's Door, hailing the veteran Russian singer as a "great man."

Shevchuk on Sunday appeared in front of 2,000 people for a banned concert in Moscow protesting plans to build a motorway through a forest, when he was forced to sing without any amplification.