Moscow: Russian police detained as many as 60 protesters in a central Moscow Square as they tried to hold an unscheduled demonstration against Prime Minister Vladmir Putin's rule.
Around 200 people, including reporters and bloggers, had gathered at the Triumfalnaya Square to stage an anti-Putin rally in Moscow, police said.
Shouting slogans like 'Putin Must Go!' and 'Free the Political Prisoners', the protesters gathered at the Square as part of a continued wave of protests against Putin and his regime ever since the controversial parliamentary election in the country.
As many as 60 were detained after they refused to leave the site following repeated warnings by the police, Itar-Tass news agency said. The arrests came hours after Prime Minister Putin sent a conciliatory message to the opposition in a televised New Year's Eve address.
Protests were also held in Nizhny Novgorod, where former Russian Deputy Prime Minister and an outspoken critic of Putin, Boris Nemtsov said he might run for the region's governorship, if the gubernatorial elections were restored.
In his address earlier, Putin said: "At such times, politicians always try to manipulate the voters' feelings, everything is a little shaken up and seething, but that is the inevitable cost of democracy. There's nothing unusual here."
Putin is facing massive demonstrations following the December 4 parliamentary election that the opposition and international observers said was marked by fraud and violations.
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