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Russia’s Riot Police Detain Hundreds At Anti-Corruption Rally

Baton-wielding riot police broke up an anti-government demonstration in Moscow on Monday and arrested over a hundred protesters after detaining Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny … Continue reading Russia’s Riot Police Detain Hundreds At Anti-Corruption Rally


Baton-wielding riot police broke up an anti-government demonstration in Moscow on Monday and arrested over a hundred protesters after detaining Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as he tried to leave his home.

Several thousand protesters, including many young people, crowded central Moscow at Navalny’s behest chanting and waving flags.

Demonstrators gathered in Moscow’s central Pushkin Square before some moved towards the Kremlin, but their path was blocked by police barriers put in place as part of a festival of historical costumes on Tverskaya Street, Moscow’s central thoroughfare.

At one point, protesters shouting anti-Kremlin slogans mingled with people taking part in the officially-organised festival, with police detaining people in the crowds.

Navalny, who is mounting a long-shot bid to unseat Vladimir Putin in a presidential election next year, had called for mass protests in Moscow and other cities against what he says is a corrupt system of rule overseen by Putin.

The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed those allegations and accused Navalny of trying irresponsibly to whip up unrest.

Russian state media ignored the protests.

Authorities in Moscow said Monday’s protest was illegal and drafted in hundreds of riot police who moved to detain people they regarded as trouble makers, loading them onto buses to be charged.