On Wednesday, November 4, law enforcement officers in central Moscow made mass arrests among participants of the “Russian March” — a nationalist demonstration taking place on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.
According to OVD-Info, police officers arrested at least 30 people, who were loaded into two police vans.
Interfax reports that two other people were arrested in the city’s Lyublino District earlier this morning in connection with the march — Dmitry Mikhailov, the applicant behind the rally, and journalist Olga Sapronova.
Citing the epidemiological situation due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Moscow authorities had refused to authorize the Russian March to take place in the city’s Lyublino District, where it has traditionally been held since 2009.
Following the refusal, the organizers behind the march decided to change the rally’s format — they planned to lay flowers at the Federal Penitentiary Service office located on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, to commemorate Russian neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich, who died in prison in mid-September.
The Russian March occurs annually on Unity Day, a national holiday celebrated in Russia on November 4 (it was established in 2005 to commemorate the anniversary of Moscow’s liberation from Polish occupation in November 1612). Russian Nationalist groups typically hold demonstrations in various cities across the country on this holiday. The Russian March has been criticized for racism and xenophobia in the past.