A truly amazing nine-minute video has surfaced on YouTube recording the brutal crackdown against and heroic defiance of the “31″ protesters in St. Petersburg a few days ago.

The group assembled to demand their rights to peaceably assemble under Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, and were summarily arrested by an army of OMON gestapo troops.  Despite repeated acts of crude violence against the protesters, they never strike back. But after being stuffed into a bus for transport to jail, they climb out onto the roof and continue their protest, absolutely mocking the authority of the police.  As the photos after the jump clearly show, the onlookers were utterly horrified by the barbaric conduct of the so-called “law enforcement officers,” who were in fact the only ones breaking the law this day.

Meanwhile, Putin’s Gestapo in Volgograd jailed a nationally known rap artist because he dared to perform a song criticizing the police. With every day that passes, Putin’s goons are becoming more neo-Soviet, less civilized, more barbaric, less subject to any rational policy or control.  Russia is rushing backwards into the failed past.

The Russian blogosphere has been driven into a frenzy by the Nazi-like acts, as well it should have been.  The event was unquestionably a complete failure for Putin’s stormtroopers, and clear evidence that the opposition forces are gathering strength.  Needless to say, none of it was reported on state-controlled media.

It is genuinely thrilling to watch these supreme Russian patriots chanting “Russia must be free” and “this is our country” and calling the police “fascist.”  They lock arms and stand in solidarity just as other Russians once did against other fascists.  Soon, many more will join them, and Putin’s response will become far more draconian and evil.