Moscow police detain hundreds of protesters at anti-corruption rally

Moscow police detained hundreds of protesters on Sunday (March 26), after thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The protests, reckoned to be the biggest since a wave of anti-Kremlin demonstrations in 2011/2012, come a year before a presidential election which Vladimir Putin is expected to contest, running for what would be a fourth term.

Opinion polls suggest the liberal opposition, which the anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Alexei Navalny represents, have little chance of fielding a candidate capable of unseating Putin, who enjoys high ratings.

But Navalny and his supporters hope to channel public discontent over official corruption to attract more support.

The Kremlin said on Friday (March 24) that plans for the central Moscow protest, which the city’s authorities had rejected, were an illegal provocation.

Grigory Okhotin, one of the founders of OVD Info, a human rights organisation which monitors detentions, said around 600 people had been detained in Moscow on Sunday.

Police said around 7,000-8,000 people were on Tverskaya Street and surrounding areas by mid-afternoon and put the number of detentions by late afternoon at around 500.

As evening drew in, hundreds of riot police drove protesters away from the city’s main Tversakaya street and surrounding areas.

Navalny called the protests after publishing allegations that Medvedev, the prime minister and former president, had amassed a huge fortune that far outstripped his official salary.

Medvedev’s spokeswoman called the allegations “propagandistic attacks” unworthy of detailed comment and said they amounted to pre-election posturing by Navalny.

Navalny was detained by the police as he walked along Tverskaya Street with supporters to join the protesters.