THE Kremlin has often seemed unsure about how best to deal with the continuing protests in Moscow. Tentative hints at a conciliatory policy have been followed by a crackdown. One day wearing a white ribbon in the street or eating breakfast at the wrong café can get you arrested. The next tens of thousands of people march through Moscow unimpeded by police.

A harder strategy is now emerging. President Vladimir Putin has signed a new law raising fines for unsanctioned protests to $9,000, almost as much as the average annual salary, with organisers being made liable to fines of as much as $30,000. And investigative officers this week raided the apartments of opposition leaders, supposedly looking for evidence in connection with a criminal case linked to earlier protests. Men with black balaclavas and Kalashnikovs stood guard while the investigators rummaged through photograph albums and political leaflets. With his mobile phones and computers seized, Alexei Navalny, an opposition leader, said that he felt as if he were back “in the 20th century”.

The new law and the apartment raids were presumably meant to reduce support for the latest protest, on June 12th. In fact, they may have achieved the opposite. Tens of thousands of ordinary Russians joined the protest, which rivalled those held last winter in size. Many came expressly to show that they were angered by the Kremlin's attempted intimidation. Ilya Ponomarev, a deputy from Just Russia, once a pro-Kremlin party that is now turning into a real opposition force, says the Kremlin's moves of recent days “do not frighten anybody, but only get them angry.” Another member of Just Russia, Gennady Gudkov, a former KGB man, adds that “It's impossible to shove this many people back into the kitchen.”

The protest march finished on Prospekt Sakharov, where a stage was set up for a rally. Yet speeches felt beside the point: the crowd has heard them many times before. Moreover, many of those who were prominent in previous protests, including Mr Navalny, were unavoidably absent, having been taken in for questioning by investigators. The opposition remains leaderless and split among very numerous factions and ideologies, so it is in no immediate position to confront the Kremlin, still less find its way towards power. Nevertheless, this week's protest suggests it is not going to melt away.