Police in St. Petersburg detained several people at the Senate Square even before the rally was set to begin while in Ural capital Yekaterinburg, protesters pelted smoke flares at riot police which led to a forceful dispersion of the gathering.
Earlier in the day, the protesters were pushed out from the Senate Square by the police. According to a Sputnik correspondent, at approximately 11:20 GMT, the protesters returned to the square, surrounding the Bronze Horseman monument and chanting slogans. Before that, police officers were pelted with snowballs by the protesters.
Meanwhile, some 30 participants of an unauthorized rally in the Russian city of Makhachkala, the capital of the southern Republic of Dagestan, have been detained by the police, the republic's interior ministry told Sputnik.
"An unauthorised rally took place at Makhachkala's Central Square, approximately 30 participants were delivered to police departments for identification. Almost everyone has been release. The event at the square is over", the ministry's spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the security agency of the Sverdlovsk region told Sputnik that 14 people were detained during the demonstration in Yekaterinburg.
In addition, local authorities in the Siberian city of Irkutsk said that some 2,500 people joined an unauthorised rally there.
Protests began early Saturday in Far Eastern cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk and unfolded as the day progressed west, as opposition-minded citizens responded to jailed activist Alexey Navalny’s call to take to the streets.
In the run-up to the protests, authorities urged citizens to refrain from attending the protests, as coronavirus restrictions prohibited public gatherings.
