It is being called the "Russian Tienanmen Square" in reference in the 1989 protests in Beijing China in which an unidentified, unarmed man stood in front of a line of tanks in protest against the government's use of force against its citizens. In this case, the people in Moscow were protesting the inauguration of President Putin, a figure many Russians view as corrupt and undeserving of the presidency.
The civilians, while having a permit to protest, began approaching the police lines and as one thing led to another, bottles were thrown, tear gas was used, and over 450 people were arrested, beaten with police batons, and dragged into police vans.
The photo was taken with an iPhone by a reporter employed by the New Yorker Magazine... she tweeted it to her 6000 followers and the picture quickly went viral.
Living in a country of stability and ensured constitutional rights it can be easy to forget that our reality is not the reality of most of the people in the world.... a world in which a five year old boy stares down an army of police and he makes them flinch first...