Police prevented an attempt by the opposition to turn a rally sanctioned in downtown Moscow into a march across Moscow streets, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Sunday.
The rally, which was held at the intersection of Novy Arbat Street and the Garden Ring to mark National Flag Day celebrated in Russia on Sunday, gathered about 50 people, according to police estimates.
The rally's organizers, opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Milov and Lev Ponomaryov, made three attempts to turn the rally into a Moscow march, police told RIA Novosti.
After the third attempt and talks with the police, the rally participants started to leave the site, the police said.
The Moscow authorities earlier announced the closure of Triumfalnaya Square in downtown Moscow to build an underground car park, a move the opposition says is aimed at preventing them from gathering at the site.
Opposition groups have chosen Triumfalnaya Square as a venue for Marches of Dissent, held on the last day of each 31-day-month to defend the right to freedom of assembly, as enshrined in Article 31 of the Russian Constitution. Russian opposition and human rights activists have already applied to the Moscow City Hall to hold a March of Dissent on August 31.
MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti)
