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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jacob Jarvis

Russia protests: Mass arrests as thousands march in opposition demonstrations

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Russia in mass opposition demonstrations.

Russian police have detained 245 people involved in opposition protests across the nation, according to reports.

Some 146 of those were in the capital city Moscow, where tens of thousands of people rallied on Saturday in one of Moscow's biggest political protests in recent years.

Riot police were seen grabbing protesters from the streets as they showed a heavy presence across the city.

Riot police were out in force in Moscow (REUTERS)

Demonstrators were denouncing the exclusion of opposition and independent candidates from the Russian capital's city council ballot.

The rally was the fourth consecutive weekend demonstration in Moscow over the local election and the action has prompted protests in other cities.

A group that monitors attendance of public meetings, Beliye Schetchik, said it counted about 50,000 people at the Moscow demonstration.

Huge crowds took to the streets (REUTERS)

While a police estimate put the crowd at 20,000.

Unlike the previous Moscow protests, where police dispersed the crowds and detained thousands of demonstrators, the latest gathering in a neighbourhood with relatively few passers-by was officially sanctioned.

It was held on a street flanked by high buildings and sandwiched between two busy thoroughfares.

Lyubov Sobol, one of the city council candidates denied a place on the ballot and a spearhead of the election protest, was among those detained in Moscow on Saturday.

A video on Ms Sobol's Twitter feed showed officers breaking into her office as she demanded an explanation from them.

Additional reporting by agencies.

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