Police Detain More Protesters in Downtown Moscow

Police detained over 10 more protesters on early Sunday on the Stary Arbat street as anti-Putin activists decided to encamp the street after being ousted from Kudrinskaya Square.

Some 100 people gathered on Saturday night on the Stary Arbat street near a monument to famous Soviet songwriter and singer Bulat Okudzhava. Police began detaining those, who unfolded sleeping bags and decided to sleep there.

In all, police detained on Saturday over 50 people protesting in various parts of Moscow.

Riot police dismantled protesters’ camp in the Russian capital’s fashionable Chistye Prudy neighborhood early on Wednesday, briefly detaining over 20 people. Activists decided to continue with the protests and moved to the Kudrinskaya Square near the Barrikadnaya metro station, but were later ousted by police from there as well.

The demonstrators planned to meet at the Kudrinskaya square again on Saturday evening but the police blocked it, opposition activist Alyona Popova wrote in her Twitter page.

The Chistye Prudy camp was attended by up to 3,000 protesters at its peak and attracted activists of a variety of political persuasions, from anarchists to nationalists, all apparently united only by their opposition to President Vladimir Putin.

Citizens are discontented with protesters’ wanderings as demonstrators are making noise and littering, Moscow City Duma Deputy Kirill Schitov wrote in his Twitter page after talking with residents of city districts.

 

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