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news report
 Wednesday May 22, 2002 11:44 by george w
 A Russian policeman has been caught on tape punching a female demonstrator who was blocking the road. Sound familiar? From the Daily Telegraph A senior Russian policeman has been caught on camera punching a mother and her infant daughter in the face, generating outrage in a nation which usually shrugs off thuggish behaviour by the police. Lt Col Alexander Lysenko, traffic police chief in the port of Vladivostok, was suspended pending an inquiry following the incident, but the decision has failed to curb a national uproar. Television footage shows the officer aiming and landing a right-handed jab at the two during a bad-tempered demonstration in the city on the Pacific coast last week. The story has occupied the front pages of newspapers and led many news bulletins. The woman, Svetlana Demidova, had tried to shoo the officer away before he lunged at her and her child. Her daughter, who was in her arms, screamed in fear and shock. President Putin was briefed on the episode, which followed a pledge by Boris Gryzlov, the interior minister, to improve the police's image. The pictures, repeated over and over again on television and even replayed in slow motion, have shocked Russia. Most Russians have a low enough opinion of the force for its corruption and incompetence. But the spectacle of a uniformed officer hitting a defenceless woman and child has stunned even the fatalistic. The altercation erupted during a protest by fishing workers owed a year's back pay by a local firm in which dozens of people blocked the traffic last Friday. Miss Demidova was one of a number stopping trolleybuses and ignoring police pleas to clear the roads
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