Police released early on Thursday six opposition activists who were arrested briefly during an unauthorized protest rally downtown Moscow for an attempt to distribute tents among the protesters.
The rally on Pushkinskaya Square gathered about 150 protesters on Wednesday night.
“The detainees were released after having been taken to a police precinct where they were questioned and their backgrounds were checked,” police said in a statement.
The activists belong to the so-called Rosagit group that has been involved in distributing opposition propaganda materials among protesters since November last year.
Moscow authorities earlier said they would not allow setting up tent camps anywhere in the city as they would “disrupt the daily life of Moscow citizens.”
The opposition insists, though, that the Kremlin is trying to prevent a so-called ‘orange revolution’ in Russia, similar to the one that took place in Ukraine in 2004, when thousands of Ukrainians set up tents on the central Maidan Square protesting against rigged presidential elections.
