Police detain about 20 in Moscow center for "various offenses"
MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) - Police detained about 20 people in central Moscow on Saturday for "various offenses," and took them to a police station, a spokesman for the city police authority told Interfax.
Earlier in the day, the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio said, citing one of its reporters, that there was an opposition demonstration in progress in the vicinity of Red Square.
The demonstrators, most of whom were wearing white ribbons, symbols of the liberal opposition movement, dubbed their action as "a leisure outing" in support of those arrested in connection with riots during an opposition demonstration on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012.
The riots followed a procession that was going to end up in a rally on Bolotnaya Square that did not materialize. Both the procession and planned rally had been permitted by the city administration.
Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators when the latter were entering Bolotnaya Square. The opposition accused the police of trying to obstruct the rally, while the police accused the opposition of deliberately provoking the violence.
More than 400 people were arrested.
On April 8, the Russian Investigative Committee announced that investigations into the riots were entering their final phase.
"It must be pointed out that the investigation of the criminal case with the aim of identifying and finding all the participants and organizers of the mass riots and bringing them under prosecution under the law is continuing," the Committee said.