Opposition Rally Dispersed in Moscow

Writer and radical protest leader Eduard Limonov, the head of the unregistered Other Russia party, was detained along with several dozen other demonstrators on Monday at a traditional Strategy-31 protest rally that took place on 31 January 2013 in Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square. "About 50 people took part in the unsanctioned action on Triumfalnaya Square, which is just one-fourth the number that took part on December 31 last year," a police spokesman told RIA Novosti. Police are now taking down their cordons and leaving the square. The event was being covered by about 50 journalists and bloggers. They converged on Limonov when he arrived at the square. He was detained by police soon after. Russian opposition groups rally on the last day of each month that has 31 days in defense of their right to freedom of assembly, as enshrined in Article 31 of the Russian Constitution. They had filed an application to hold a sanctioned meeting, but City Hall rejected their request, citing the legal violations committed by the applicants at previous unsanctioned rallies. The chief of police in central Moscow had warned the organizers on Thursday against holding the unsanctioned protest.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20121231/178517043.html
http://youtu.be/BuH2OJAr8r8 (video)