In a non-approved demonstration against Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, according to a police spokesman, 263 people were arrested. As Russian news agency Tass reported, many of detained demonstrators had knives, knuckles, or pistols with rubber ammunition. The demonstrators followed call of nationalist oppositionist Vyacheslav Maltsev, who had called for protests against Putin on occasion of 100 anniversary of October Revolution of 1917.

The Bürgerrechtlerportal OVD-Info also reported more than 200 arrests in Moscow and several dozen in St. Petersburg and several provincial towns. According to government-critical radio station Echo Moskvy, police mainly controlled young people.

Already on Friday, Russian domestic intelligence FSB, according to its own data, had arrested a "conspiratorial cell" of movement Artpodgotowka, whose members allegedly wanted to fire authorities on weekend and had to trigger mass unrest.

Maltsev operates a YouTube channel entitled "Artpodgotowka" (German: "Artillery preparation") and 143,000 subscribers. The movement of same name was banned in October. Maltsev was 2016 in elections to Russian parliament, Duma, with slogan "repeal of anti-grassroots laws, peace with Ukraine, impeachment against Putin". He lives in Paris after having fled Russia in middle of year due to a warrant.

The October Revolution of 1917 marks 6th of November for 100 time. At that time, communist Bolsheviks under leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin had forcibly toppled existing government. It is called October Revolution because it was held on 25 October after Julian calendar, which was n still in Russia.

Date Of Update: 06 November 2017, 12:02