Police detained about 20 people in central Moscow on Tuesday after calls by a nationalist movement for a rally.
The previously unknown December 11 Movement, named in apparent reference to last year's mass rioting near Red Square by nationalists and football hooligans, earlier called for a "Russia for Russians" rally at the central Manezh Square at 7 pm Moscow time [16:00 GMT].
Police subsequently cordoned off a vast section of the square.
The Russian capital saw its biggest public disturbances for almost a decade when a 5,000-strong crowd of nationalists and football hooligans clashed with police at Manezh Square on December 11.
Further disturbances followed three days later as ethnic Russians and internal migrants gathered for a confrontation near a major train terminus in Moscow. Race hate riots also occurred in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities.
MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti)
