Youth jailed for Bolshoi invasion

Left-wing groups also tried to block traffic in the heart of Moscow

Several young Russian political opponents of President Putin have been jailed for up to week for disrupting an opera at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre.

Members of the left-wing National Bolshevik Party invaded the stage soon after Mr Putin was inaugurated for a second four-year term in the Kremlin.

The youth set off flares on the stage, handcuffed themselves to chairs and shouted "down with Putin the monarch".

The action evoked memories of a recent deadly siege in a Moscow theatre.

In 2002, 129 people died when Russian special forces tried to free hostages taken by armed Chechen rebels.