Fayaz Shabayev, city police chief, offered Novosti ample details.
The Kazan Communist Party branch duly applied to the municipal top beforehand to have the rally authorized. The application said pensioners would rally alone to debate a highly controversial reform that substitutes money grants for welfare privileges in kind.
As the rally was on, National Bolshevik activists joined it to demand release of several party members recently convicted for an attack on the reception room of Mikhail Zurabov, federal Minister of Health and Social Development.
Leading the radical Red party is writer Eduard Limonov, so its members are often referred to as Limonovites.
Several of the Limonovites at today's rally had foil-wrapped swords on them, said Mr. Shabayev.
All detainees are in the central city police precinct now, he added.
The rally had gathered about a hundred pensioners, and finished with an unprecedented resolution. It appeals to the federal top to arrange an inspection of the metro, whose construction is underway in Kazan. The rallies doubt its blueprints are up to safety standards, and suspect bloated costs. They strongly demand to put an end to a construction rush to commission the project by August 30, when the city is to celebrate its millennium.
