Police disperse 100 silent protesters in central Moscow
The protesters had gathered near a monument to heroes of the 1877-78 Russian-Turkish war near the Kitai-Gorod metro station following appeals from opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny who was arrested early on Tuesday morning, RIA Novosti reports.
A police cordon pressed against the protesters, pushing them into the underpass toward the entrance to the metro station. Several people were arrested while the others escaped.
Earlier police refrained from any action, just watching the protesters who did not wear any protest symbols and sat peacefully near the monument.
They had spent all night resting in sleeping bags or sitting on pieces of cardboard. In the morning, some of them began playing ball and badminton.
Valery Nikolsky of the Moscow Helsinki Group human rights monitor said the people around the monument expressed their protest by their presence but did not violate any laws. "Hence, there is a tacit agreement between the protesters and the authorities," he said.
An ex-premier, Vladimir Putin was sworn in as president for a third term on Monday amid street protests . Russian parliament is to vote on the candidacy of Dmitry Medvedev as premier later in the afternoon.
Police arrested about 400 protesters in Sunday's rallies and 300 people on Monday .
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