"Two Eurasian Youth Union leaders, Pavel Zarifullin and Yury Gorsky, were detained for violating street meeting rules," police said, adding they had been released after relevant protocols had been drawn up.
The union claims police were angered by the number of demonstrators, which reached 3,000, i.e. three times more than had been expected.
Police said the Right March, staged by radical rightist movements, including the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, Russian National Union, National Patriotic Front Memory, and others, had passed without major incidents.
However, a few incidents did happen. About 25 activists of leftist youth movements who held slogans reading "No way to fascism!" attacked Right March participants. The latter took away the slogans and burnt them. Police prevented further clashes and the march went on.
Unknown people threw smoke bombs at the marchers and fled. The patriotic Advance Guard of the Red Youth claimed the responsibility for the attack, saying the attackers had been detained by OMON special police later. Police refuted the allegation.
The marchers drummed and chanted "Long Live the Empire!" "Russians, Get on Your Feet!" The slogans and banners they carried read "Russians Are Advancing!" and "Russians, Go Ahead!"
The ruling United Russia party and the liberal Union of Right Forces and Yabloko condemned the rally as nationalistic.
