Russian riot police arrested scores of opposition activists on Sunday in central Moscow at an unsanctioned rally to defend the right to free assembly.

Activists have been holding regular protests in the Russian capital, which are routinely denied authorisation and dispersed by riot police, in defence of the constitutional right to public gathering.
 

Dozens of police deployed in vans around Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square to prevent Sunday's demonstration, which drew 200 to 300 people. They broke up the rally in half an hour, as the crowd yelled "Shame! Shame!"
 

Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov was among those rounded up, along with the heads of the Memorial rights organisation, Oleg Orlov, and of the Movement for Human Rights, Lev Ponomarev.
 

Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov told the Interfax news agency that around 100 people were detained.
 

"On Sunday, members of the opposition tried to stage an unauthorised protest. Police were forced to arrest the most active participants who were brandishing placards and shouting anti government slogans," Biryukov said.
 

A spokesman for the Solidarnost opposition movement, Ilia Yachin - one of those held - told Moscow's independent Echo radio later on Sunday that all the activists had been released.

They have been ordered to appear before a judge on Thursday to anwser accusations of breaching rules on public gatherings, Yachin said.
 

On 31 December, police detained the 82 year old Russian dissident Ludmila Alexeeva - a founder of Russia's oldest active rights organisation, the Moscow Helsinki Group - at one such rally, sparking protests from the White House.
 

Source: AFP