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Protesters moving to Moscow’s Patriarshiye Prudy ponds

Leader of the opposition Left Front Sergei Udaltsov is expected to join the action

MOSCOW, May 9 (Itar-Tass) —— After another failure to gather for an unauthorized action in Moscow’s Arbat Street, opposition activists are moving to the Patriarshiye Prudy ponds, also in downtown Moscow.

When the police detained several participants in the so-called “open-ended protest public gathering” in Tverskoi Boulevard near the building of Itar-Tass, opposition activists mover to Arbat Street where they were met by the police. Several more activists were detained.

The activists are now moving to the Patriarshiye Prudy ponds to join several dozens of opposition activists who are already there. They say there are no police in the vicinity.

Leader of the opposition Left Front Sergei Udaltsov is expected to join the action.

According to earlier reports, among those detained in Tverskoi boulevard were blogger Alexei Navalny, popular television anchor Xenia Sobchak, and members of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Dmitry Gudkov, who was said to voluntarily proceed to a police car.

On Tuesday, participants in the “public gatherings” staged actions near the Heroes of Plevna Monument, in Chistopridny Boulevard, and on Pushkinskaya Square. The police stopped all these actions.

According to a spokesman of the Moscow police department, more than 30 people were detained on charges of administrative offence. A number of people were detained more than once during the day.