Police in Moscow have detained four activists who tried to hang a banner reading "Men in power for 200 years! Down with that!" on the Kremlin wall on International Women's Day.
The activists, all women, were detained on March 8 along with two correspondents and a photographer from the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta who were covering the protest.
International Women's Day was celebrated avidly in the Soviet Union and is a holiday in Russia.
Marking the holiday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev endorsed a five-year strategy to support women's interests outlined by the Labor Ministry. http://government.ru/docs/26698/
Officials said the plan called for measures to improve the position of women in political, economic, social, and cultural spheres, to be carried out between 2017-22.
A domestic-abuse law signed by President Vladimir Putin a month ago drew attention to the rights and treatment of women in Russia.
Rights groups say the law, which decriminalized domestic violence in cases when it is a first offense and does not result in bodily harm, increases the risk of abuse faced by women.
No woman has been the head of state in Russia since Empress Catherine the Great died in 1796.