"Committee of January 19": opponents of anti-fascist march detained in Moscow

The Moscow police detained several persons, who tried to interfere with the sanctioned march, organized by the "Committee of January 19” on the anniversary of the murder of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, rights defenders report.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in the evening on January 19, at the march in memory of Markelov and Baburova, held in Moscow, initially five persons were detained. Later, a source from the Moscow Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reported that the number of detainees increased up to 10 persons.

Nadezhda Prusenkova, a participant of the march and a member of the above Committee, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that yesterday several persons tried to provoke disorders during the march.

"Some of them were detained by the police. There was also an incident in Kropotkinskaya, when someone blew up a petard. Policemen ran after the man, who did it, but whether they caught him or not – I don’t know,” said Nadezhda Prusenkova.

According to her story, one of the marchers was also brought to the police. "He was arrested in front of the metal-detecting frames. They took him to the police station for identification; checked his documents and released him in half an hour without any explanations. Just an ordinary man; he behaved normally, not provocatively; he didn’t look suspicious and didn’t carry anything forbidden. No one else from the marchers was detained," said Prusenkova.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.