Beatings And Arrests At Latest Moscow Protest

The authorities had warned they would take “all necessary measures” to stop the unauthorized rally. These police officers appeared to take those words to heart, as they detained a man on Pushkinskaya Square in the city center. 

Prominent opposition activist Lyubov Sobol was taken away by police as she left her political headquarters. She is on hunger strike, demanding the right to run in local elections, and a key organizer of the current wave of protests.

Ranks of riot police were in place to prevent protesters marching along the Boulevard Ring, which skirts central Moscow. 

Many of those detained were young...

...but age was no protection from police using force to prevent peaceful protest.

A helicopter flying over a statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, in the square that bears his name.

Police swooped on another demonstrator. RFE/RL's Moscow correspondent Matthew Luxmoore said it felt like a state of emergency had been declared in Moscow.

A protester holds aloft a copy of Russia's constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly and free speech. 

Russia's ongoing crackdown has been condemned by the United States, the European Union, and international human-rights organizations.

Batons ready, members of Russia's National Guard were also on hand to prevent the demonstrators gathering.