MOSCOW They have become the ultimate symbol of power in Russia and the brazen disregard for the law that comes with it - spinning blue lights on VIP vehicles that give drivers the right to speed and cut up traffic at will.

Accidents involving cars with the lights - migalki - occur in Moscow weekly. But expanding internet use has brought videos of crashes to the attention of a growing number of Russians, fanning anger at government corruption. And now a fledgling protest movement may have found a hero.

Early on Friday, police arrested a man who carried out a one-man protest outside the walls of the Kremlin last week. Leonid Nikolaev, a member of Solidarity, Russia's leading opposition group, staked out a street corner until he saw a VIP car pull up. Pulling a blue bucket over his head, he ran up to the car and over its roof. What would be seen in many countries as a funny stunt was seen as a daring provocation in Russia, and video of the event spread virally over the internet. The cars owner, reportedly a member of the FSB, Russia's secret police, was not amused.

Nikolaev's friends said he was snatched outside the entrance to his apartment early yesterday morning. He disappeared for several hours, unreachable by telephone, only to turn up at a local police station. He has been charged with hooliganism. But the protest movement has previous form. A demonstration in mid-April saw dozens of drivers attach blue buckets to their cars in imitation of the official lights and drive slowly through Moscow. Similar action, organised by the Blue Buckets Society, followed. Earlier this month, a bill was submitted to the Duma that would require such protests to register for official permission - a tactic the Kremlin uses to suppress opposition rallies.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service