RUSSIA: Chaos in Moscow as police arrest 600 demonstrators over unathorised rally

There were chaotic scenes in the Russian capital of Moscow when no less than 600 demonstrators were arrested by policemen for attending an unauthorised protest.

According to a monitoring group, scores of protesters who gathered on Pushkin Square demanding free elections were overpowered by armed policemen who swept them away into detention.

Grigory Durnovo, a coordinator for OVD-info, told Al Jazeera that police started to detain protesters even before the demonstration began.

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“The rally was planned to start at 2pm Moscow time [11:00 GMT]. The first detentions started about two hours before. We can call it preventive detentions, because people were taken to police stations and they were told to sign warrants warning them not to attend the rally and even not to appear in the streets close to the place where the rally was to be held,” he said from Moscow

Reports say demonstrations erupted in Moscow after the exclusion of independent and opposition candidates from the Moscow city council election.

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